Seven Devils
by alisonmichal
Summary: Sam, Dean, and Alec try to clean up the aftermath of opening the Devil's Gate, but it might be too much for them.
1. Chapter 1

_This is another story in the Family series. You don't have to read the others, but things will make more sense if you do! Hope you all enjoy!_

* * *

"C'mon Sam get up!" Alec ran over and pulled Sam to his feet. He didn't have time to be gentle; they had a demon on the loose and Dean was already running ahead of them. They'd been chasing this demon for a while now and it kept finding ways to slow them down. Alec had a cut over his eye and blood running down his face, Sam was limping, and Dean had his left arm close to his side to try and protect his ribs. And those were just the most obvious injuries.

Alec paced Sam until they were close enough that they were even with Dean. They were running through the halls of one of the building on a college campus. They'd been chasing this demon for most of the night, well actually most of the week, but this was the closest they had gotten yet.

"Where'd he go?" Sam asked, slightly breathless.

"Up around the corner," Dean replied back, equally breathless.

"_If I lay here_

_If I just lay here_

_Would you lie with me and just forget the world"_

"What the hell is that?" Dean asked, looking back at Alec.

Alec quickly answered his phone and Dean groaned, "You've got to be kidding me…"

"Bad time. Call you back," Alec muttered quickly and then hung up.

"Who the hell was that and why is that your ringtone?" Dean immediately asked and Sam laughed.

"Well since you liked that song so much I was going to make it your ringtone, but then I thought you'd probably kill me for that and so I decided to make it mine and now you can't do anything about it," Alec smirked. "And it was Bobby, he probably has an update about the whereabouts on this demon which we obviously don't need…"

Dean knocked into him as they ran, "Why don't you stop your yakin' and catch up with this thing?"

"You told me no runnin' off without backup, remember?" Alec asked sarcastically.

Dean rolled his eyes, "Now you decide to listen to me?

"He seemed to conveniently forget that yesterday…" Sam threw in.

"Yeah and I got my ass chewed for it so now I'm listening!" Alec defended.

Dean slowed down as they neared the corner and Alec and Sam matched his pace. He motioned silently for Alec to take the left and Sam to take the right. Dean went out first so he could distract the demon.

"You might as well give up! There's no way out of here…" Dean said as he walked into the open room.

"You Winchesters might be a little too cocky…you haven't managed to catch me yet…"

Alec snuck around the corner and stayed in the shadows so he couldn't be seen. They were in another classroom, but Alec was happy to see that all the desks were pushed against the wall, less for them to run into.

"What do you call this? Cause it looks to me like you're trapped…" Dean said with a smile.

"You think just because your brothers are in the shadows I can't see them?" The demon asked and threw his arms out to the sides. Alec was lifted off his feet and thrown backwards into the wall.

Alec got to his feet just as Dean was thrown into the far corner. He ran to the demon and punched the guy across the jaw.

* * *

Dean was slow to get back to his feet. His ribs were killing him and flying across the room hadn't helped anything. He looked up to try and see where the demon was, but Alec and the demon were a blur of fists and Dean couldn't tell what was happening. Instead of getting in the way, Dean went over and helped Sam to his feet.

"This thing's either juiced up on something or we've been working too much…" Dean muttered as they both stood. They'd been working nonstop since they'd opened the Devil's Gate; they were trying to kill all of the demons they'd let loose, but it wasn't easy. One demon shouldn't be a problem for the three of them, but it had almost been a month of constant hunting and they were all tired.

"Exorcism! Now!" Alec slowed down long enough to yell, but then he went right back to fighting.

Sam immediately started in on the exorcism, but it only made things worse. The demon managed to sweep Alec's feet out from under him and slammed his head against the ground. Alec instantly went limp and the demon threw Sam off his feet and into the wall again.

"Dammit…" Dean breathed out. He couldn't do anything as the demon ran forward, grabbed him, and forced him up against the wall.

"That was almost too easy…" The demon taunted. It pulled back its arm and then slammed its fist into the side of Dean's face. He instantly tasted blood and spit it back in the demon's face. The demon glared, "Just for that, I'm going to kill you slowly…peel the skin from your bones…" He pulled his arm back and hit Dean again.

Dean's vision was swimming and the only thing holding him up was the demon.

"You know what might be fun…if I killed your brothers first," the demon smiled his wicked grin and then dropped Dean to the ground. Dean struggled to get to his feet as it made its way toward Sam. The demon was taking its time walking; it knew Dean wasn't going to get there any time soon.

Dean finally stood up and started over to Sam, but a movement caught his eye. One of the windows on the far wall started to open and a girl slipped inside. She silently made her way over to the demon, but stopped and looked over at Dean and smirked.

"Harper?" Dean said in confused recognition. Harper looked just as he remembered with her long brown hair pulled back in a ponytail and a backpack on her back.

Harper turned around and rolled her eyes at Dean, "Did you have to give away my surprise attack?"

The demon turned around, but Harper tossed Holy Water on it and it screamed in agony. She tackled the demon to the ground and then immediately started digging through her backpack. She dumped some more Holy Water on the thing before she pulled out what looked like a mat and then laid it out on the floor.

"What is that?" Dean asked.

"You'll see," Harper replied with a smile. "Help me for a sec…"

Dean ran over and helped wrestle the demon until he was standing on the mat. When Dean looked down he saw a Devil's Trap was printed on the mat. The demon tried to move, but the mat worked and the thing was stuck.

"You're joking right?"

"I call it Devil's Trap to Go. What do you think?" Harper asked. Her eyes were bright with excitement and her smile was so contagious that Dean couldn't help but laugh.

"Did you come up with this yourself?" Dean asked and Harper raised her eyebrows, waiting for Dean's reaction. "It's genius!"

Harper blushed a little and then gestured to the demon and asked, "Do you want to do the honors or should I?"

"Harper?" Sam's confused voice suddenly cut through the air before Dean could answer and Dean and Harper both looked over at him.

"Sam! It's been too long!" Harper ran over to Sam and threw her arms around his neck. Sam instantly hugged her back and laughed. Harper took a step back and looked Sam over, "You're taller than I remember!"

Sam's smile widened, "Yeah, I finally hit my growth spurt." Sam looked at the demon and Dean could tell Sam was surprised to see the demon trapped. "What happened?"

"Harper's a genius, that's what happened! Now who wants to exorcise this bitch?" Dean asked with a smile.

Sam quickly stepped forward and started the exorcism and Dean looked over at Harper, "Stay here ok?"

Harper laughed a little, but nodded and Dean went over to check on Alec who was still out on the floor. Dean crouched down and lightly touched Alec's shoulder. "C'mon kiddo, time to wake up."

Dean had to shake his shoulder a few times, but Alec finally groaned and slowly turned to face Dean and mumbled, "Did we get it?"

"Yeah, we got it…you good?"

Alec nodded, but then winced at the motion, "Head injuries are the worst…"

"I know. C'mon there's someone here I want you to meet," Dean said as he carefully pulled Alec to his feet.

"Who?" Alec asked in confusion.

"You'll see…"

Dean walked Alec back over to where Sam and Harper were. Harper's eyes widened at the shock of seeing Alec, but Dean knew she'd wait for an explanation before she made a judgement.

"Harper this is Alec, Alec that's Harper," Dean quickly introduced.

Harper smiled and quickly shook Alec's hand, "Nice to meet you Alec."

Alec was stunned into silence and Dean chuckled, "Don't mind him, head injury and all…"

"Harper, how'd you find us?" Sam asked after a moment.

"Bobby called me. Said you guys had been hunting down a demon and could use a hand. I was nearby, and it's been a few years…" Harper trailed off and shot a look to Dean who looked down guiltily.

"What's that?" Alec suddenly asked, pointing to the mat under the guy that used to be the demon.

"Devil's Trap to Go," Harper quickly answered as she gathered up the mat and put it back in her backpack.

Alec smirked, "Nice…why don't we have one of those?"

"It's one of a kind," Dean said and he looked over at Harper as he said this.

Alec swayed a little and Harper looked at him in concern, "Maybe we should head to a motel and catch up there…"

Dean nodded his agreement and they all started for the door. Dean hung back a little until he was walking beside Harper. It felt right to be next to her again; it'd been way too long since he'd seen her and he had to admit that he missed her.

"So, you didn't really say hello earlier…" Dean said as they fell into step together.

Harper smiled and nudged Dean to the side, "I was a little busy saving your ass…"

"Well, then I haven't thanked you yet…" Dean raised his eyebrows in suggestion and she laughed.

Harper stopped walking and Dean turned to face her. "You're right, you haven't…" She stood on her tiptoes and leaned in until her lips were next to Dean's ear. Dean felt chills as her cool breath brushed by his ear and he closed his eyes in anticipation.

"Thank me later," Harper whispered. She stepped back and gave Dean a teasing smile and then caught up with Alec and Sam. Dean groaned, but then chuckled and followed the others outside.

* * *

_More soon..._


	2. Chapter 2

"How do you guys know Harper?" Alec asked as soon as they were all in the car. Harper was in her old truck and was following them back to their motel. Sam knew Alec had been itching to ask them a million questions and he was surprised that he'd waited that long.

Sam hadn't seen Harper since before he'd left for Stanford, but he knew Dean had seen her more recently than that. He suspected that they had worked a few jobs together while he was in college, but he was afraid to bring up the past. Dean didn't like talking about Sam leaving or the years he'd been gone and Sam didn't want to disrupt the peace they had right now.

"She's a hunter," Dean answered.

"Surprisingly enough, I already figured that part out," Alec sarcastically replied.

Sam chuckled, "We've known her since we were kids. Our Dad's used to work together and we'd all be grouped together while they were on a hunt."

"Sometimes they'd send us on our own hunt so we'd stay out of their way," Dean cut in.

"Dad used to get so pissed at us," Sam said with a smile. "Remember that time we accidently burned down the motel?"

Dean laughed, "Harper talked me into that one! How was I supposed to know bottle rockets wouldn't work as a replacement for candles?"

"It's common sense, Dean! It was a séance; it was as easy as tying your shoes!"

"Harper thought it would work! She can be very persuasive…"

"You burned down a motel with bottle rockets?" Alec asked.

"It wasn't the whole motel…" Dean mumbled.

"Still…that's awesome!" Alec exclaimed.

"Don't even think about it Alec…" Sam quickly ordered.

"Hey, you're the one who put the idea out there," Alec said with a smile.

Sam groaned and Dean lightly hit him on the chest with the back of his hand, "Relax Sammy, Alec's not gonna burn down a motel…"

"Not yet…" Alec threatened.

"I'm gonna regret this conversation…" Sam muttered. He was relieved when the motel came into view a moment later, effectively putting an end to accidently giving Alec any more bad ideas.

Dean parked the car and they all piled out to grab their things. Dean quickly grabbed his duffle and then walked over to where Harper was waiting by her truck. Sam shot Alec a look and rolled his eyes, but they followed Dean into the room a moment later.

"Where do you guys find these places?" Harper asked in amusement as she looked around the room.

Sam looked around; he never really noticed where they stayed anymore since they all looked the same. Dean usually picked where they stayed anyway and he tried to go with the cheapest place he could find.

This one was decked out with a bunch of asymmetrical shapes and bright colors to try and look more modern. It just looked tacky to Sam, but it didn't matter what the room looked like, as long as it was relatively clean and there was a bed to sleep on he was good.

Usually Dean tried to get them a room with three beds, but they weren't always that lucky. This time they were stuck with two beds, but Alec didn't mind sharing and Sam and Dean were both used to it.

Dean looked at Harper in confusion, "What's wrong with it?"

Harper's eyebrows rose, "Dean, look around! One minute in this place is enough to make you feel like you're trippin'!"

"Alright so the colors are weird…" Dean admitted. "But this place is cheap and we were only going to be here a couple days…"

Harper dropped her bag onto Dean's bed and sat down. She started digging through her bag, but stopped once she realized they were all staring at her. She looked up and frowned, "What?"

Dean smiled, "Nothin'…it's just good to see you…"

Harper smiled and then motioned for him to sit down, "C'mere so I can doctor you up."

Dean sat, but Alec looked over at Sam with a question all over his face. "Harper sometimes works as a paramedic," Sam quickly explained and Alec looked back over at her. He sat down on the opposite bed and Sam sat next to him.

"When I'm runnin' low on money I try to get a job, my Mom was a well-known doctor before she died, so hospital people have usually heard of me. Makes it easier to get short-term jobs," Harper threw in as she looked over the bruises on Dean's face.

"You don't hustle pool or something like that?" Alec asked curiously.

Harper smiled, "Not very often."

Alec scowled, "How come?"

"I usually can't get anyone to play against me. Guys don't like playing girls; they don't think it's challenging enough. But if I do get someone to play, I can make a lot in one night." Alec still looked confused so Harper explained, "Guys don't like to lose, especially against a girl. So they'll keep playing, hoping that they'll win their money back."

"Which just makes it worse," Dean threw in.

Harper laughed, "True. Ok, let's see the ribs." Dean looked at her in surprise and she rolled her eyes, "Don't give me that look! I can tell they're hurta mile away!"

Dean grumbled, but slowly did what she said.

"How'd you get into hunting?" Alec asked after a moment.

Harper lightly laughed, "You ask a lot of questions."

"You have no idea," Dean muttered.

Dean sucked in a sharp breath as Harper lightly ran her fingers down his side, "Sorry…Long story short, my Dad was a hunter until he met my Mom. She died in a car accident when I was 11 and Dad didn't know what else to do, so he started hunting again. He had to teach me after we had a bad run in with a ghost; which is actually when I met Sam and Dean."

Sam chuckled, "You thought we were all crazy!"

"I didn't know ghosts were real! All I knew, was the jerk from my class was breaking into my house with a shotgun in his hand and his little brother right behind him," Harper said with a smile.

"I was not a jerk!" Dean said with mock hurt.

Harper patted Dean's knee, "Dean, you sat behind me and tied my hair in knots."

Dean smirked, "I forgot about that…"

Sam looked over at Alec, "Harper's Dad and our Dad were hunting the same ghost. We both knew that Harper didn't know anything about ghosts but Dean thought she needed protection."

"Good thing too; if you two hadn't followed me home, I'd probably be dead," Harper said with warmth in her voice and Dean looked up to meet her gaze.

Sam's phone suddenly vibrated in his pocket and he took it out and answered it.

"Hello?"

"Sam, its Bobby, did you guys get it?" Bobby's gruff voice greeted him.

"Yeah, we got it thanks to Harper. She came in just in time," Sam answered.

"Knew she would. Listen, I've got something else, I know you boys are tired, but I think this one's big…"

"What is it?"

"There're rumors that one of the demons is recruiting the others and building an army. I don't have any more than that, except the area this might be happening in."

"Where?"

"A little north of Missoula, Montana."

"Alright, we'll go check it out."

"One more thing, tell Alec when he says he'll call back he needs to remember to do it so the person that called doesn't think they're dead!"

Alec looked over at Sam with wide eyes and Sam chuckled, "I think he got the message."

"Good. I'll call again if I find anything else."

"Thanks Bobby." Sam hung up and saw that Dean and Harper were both looking at him expectantly. He knew Alec could hear the whole conversation so he kind of forgot that Dean and Harper couldn't.

"Bobby thinks there's something big going on in Montana," Sam quickly explained.

"How big?" Dean asked.

"Demon army big," Sam stated.

It was silent after he said that until Harper finally spoke, "Demon army?"

"We kinda accidently released a demon army a little over a month ago…" Alec quickly muttered.

Harper's mouth popped open in realization, "That's why there are so many more demons…"

"We've been trying to get rid of them all, but it's harder than we thought it was going to be…" Dean said.

"You're just three guys! No one expects you to kill all those demons!" Harper defended.

"It's my fault," Sam admitted with his head down. Dean and Alec kept telling him it wasn't his fault, but he was the one who did what Yellow-Eyes wanted. He couldn't get rid of the guilt and it was all he could do to keep killing each and every demon.

Alec lightly knocked into him, "Hey, I think you're forgetting a few things…"

"Yeah, weren't you savin' my ass?" Dean asked and Sam looked up to see that he was being serious.

Sam couldn't take their forgiveness so he looked away and changed the subject, "I think Alec needs some doctoring once you're done with Dean.

"Hey, you're in line before me!" Alec immediately argued.

"Alec you can't even see straight with all that blood in your eye!" Sam replied.

"Well it doesn't matter since you're both getting looked at," Harper said with a smile. The she patted Dean's knee and said, "Hop up or scoot over so I can check on one of them."

Dean scooted over until he was sitting in the middle of the bed with his legs crossed. Sam pushed Alec to his feet and Alec glared at him but stumbled his way over to sit in front of Harper.

"So, what's your story?" Harper asked as she started cleaning the blood out of Alec's eye.

Alec winced and then stated, "I'm Dean's clone."

Harper's eyes widened, "Really?"

"Yup. It's kinda complicated, but I've got some funky DNA with a lot of perks," Alec mumbled and Sam could tell he was a little uncomfortable explaining it all.

Harper nodded, "Well, you'll have to tell me more about it sometime. How in the world did you get a lump this big on your head?"

"Demon smacked it against the floor!" Alec replied, his smile widening.

Harper rolled her eyes, "You're just as bad as those two…" Her comment only made Alec's smile grow even bigger.

It was quiet as Harper finished patching up Alec and it continued as she moved on to Sam. Once she was done she sat back and asked, "So, when are we going to Montana?"

Sam and Alec both looked at Dean who replied softly, "Harper, you can't go with us on this one…"

Harper took a breath and looked up at the ceiling, "Why not? And don't even think about saying it's too dangerous."

Dean was quiet. He stood up and started for the door, "Harper, can I talk to you outside."

Harper rolled her eyes, but followed Dean. "Can you hear them?" Sam asked Alec once the door was closed.

Alec nodded, "It's really quiet, Dean's getting better at finding places to talk where I can't hear," Alec raised his eyebrows at Sam and he was tempted to smack him on the head, but he knew Alec's head was hurting and he didn't want to make it worse.

"…He wants her to stay safe…She thinks he's an idiot…He says something I can't really hear…" Alec chuckled, "She said she knows where we're going which is enough to go on…they're coming back."

Sam smiled, "I knew he wouldn't win."

"I'm glad he didn't," Alec said and Sam looked over at him and he shrugged, "He seems happy."

Sam didn't get a chance to reply because Dean and Harper came back in the room. Harper had a smirk on her face and Dean looked grumpy. Sam leaned over to Alec and barely whispered, "You think he still seems happy?"

Alec just rolled his eyes and walked over to the bed furthest from the door and lay down. Sam knew Dean would be happy that Harper was with them, but he also knew that his brother would be twice as worried as he usually was.

"Get some sleep Sam, we're leaving in the morning," Dean said after a moment and then he turned and sat next to Harper on his bed.

Sam nodded and lay next to Alec. He was glad Harper was going with them; they had a better chance with her than without her.

* * *

More soon...


	3. Chapter 3

Alec could hear someone rustling around in the room and he cursed his sensitive hearing. His head was killing him and all he wanted to do was sleep. He knew without looking that it was Sam who was walking around the room, but he couldn't figure out what he was doing.

Sam's footsteps came closer to him and then the bed sank a little as he sat down. Sam shook his shoulder a moment later and Alec wanted to groan.

"C'mon Alec, I know you're almost awake…" Sam whispered.

Alec opened his eyes a crack to find the room was dark and it was still in the middle of the night. He turned his face back into his pillow and grumbled, "Sam, why did you wake me up?"

"You have a concussion, remember?" Sam patiently answered.

"I'm fine," Alec replied, but he refused to turn over.

"C'mon, the sooner you get this over with, the sooner you can go back to sleep."

Alec sighed but gave in a moment later and sat up. Sam held up a small flashlight and turned it on in Alec's eye. Alec flinched at the sudden light and then glared at Sam, but he just ignored him and moved the light to his other eye.

"Do you remember what happened?" Sam asked as he put the flashlight away.

"Yup."

Sam huffed, "Can you tell me what happened?"

"I told you two hours ago when you woke me up…maybe you need the concussion check if you can't remember," Alec replied with a smirk.

Sam rolled his eyes, "Why do you make everything so difficult?"

"You've woken me up three times tonight, you deserve this. And why can't Harper be the one to do the wake up checks?" Alec whined.

"What? I'm not pretty enough?" Sam asked with fake hurt.

Alec chuckled and shook his head no, "Are you convinced that I'm fine yet, or should I expect another wakeup call in two hours…"

"In two hours it's gonna be time to go anyway," Sam said with a smile and Alec groaned.

"It's gonna be sooner if you two don't shut up," Dean grumbled.

Alec looked over at Dean who still had his eyes closed. Harper was still asleep, snuggled up against Dean's side and Dean had his arm around her. Alec didn't want to wake her up, or bother Dean anymore, but he had to defend himself. "It's Sam's fault!" Alec whispered.

"He has a concussion," Sam argued back.

"Both of you owe me breakfast…" Dean mumbled and he turned a little and pulled Harper closer to him.

Alec turned back to face Sam and he was surprised to see him holding a couple of pills and a glass of water.

"I know you still have a headache. If you take the medicine it'll be easier to fall asleep," Sam said quietly.

Alec didn't want to argue so he took the pills and lay back down. He didn't have much hope of falling back to sleep, but just lying down seemed to help his headache a little.

Sam lay back down and Alec felt bad about being so difficult. Sam was just worried about him and he had to be up the same amount as him. He almost wanted to wake Sam back up and apologize, but that wouldn't really make things better.

He must have managed to doze off because it seemed like the next minute and someone was gently shaking his shoulder again to wake him up.

"C'mon kiddo, you're the last thing we need before we leave," Dean said quietly.

Alec didn't want to get up; he was still tired and his head was back to pounding and the light from the room wasn't helping anything. But waiting around wouldn't solve the problem so he finally decided to sit up.

"You need some more medicine?" Dean asked after Alec sat up. He couldn't really hide how much his head hurt and even if he could, Dean would still know. Dean knew him better than anyone else and he would always know when he was hurt.

Alec shook his head; he knew the medicine wouldn't really help. His metabolism was too fast; he needed something stronger than Tylenol if he wanted to get rid of this headache.

Alec looked around the room; Sam and Harper weren't in the room and all of their things were gone. "You weren't kidding, everything's ready to go except me…"

"You were tired," Dean said with a small smile, "Not to mention the massive headache…anyway, I'll let you get ready; we'll wait for you by the car."

Dean stood up and walked out the door. Alec was always fast at getting ready and he was outside just a few minutes later.

Sam was leaning against his side of the Impala and Dean was standing next to Harper and her truck.

"When are you going to get rid of this thing?" Dean asked Harper with a smile.

"When he stops running! He's the best truck I've ever had!" Harper defended.

"He's the only truck you've ever had," Dean argued. He looked up as Alec walked out, "Hope he can make it to Montana…"

"You have no faith," Harper said with a smile.

"You're right…we're gonna follow you, cause I don't think he's gonna make it," Dean stated and Harper rolled her eyes, but she got in her truck a moment later.

Her truck could go surprisingly fast and they made good time to Montana.

Alec would doze off and on, but he wasn't really getting much sleep and his head was still hurting him. Keeping his eyes closed helped him some, but it didn't help take away any of Sam or Dean's worry.

Something warm suddenly landed on his stomach and he startled awake to find a wrapped hamburger; the car's movement must have been enough to finally help him fall asleep.

"Thought you could use some food since you keep refusing pills," Dean said after Alec met his eyes in the rearview mirror.

"They don't help anyway…" Alec muttered, "But thanks…how close are we?" Alec sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes before he unwrapped his burger.

"We're getting pretty close…are you sure you don't want to get checked out by a doctor?" Dean had asked him this already, but he was worried enough to ask him again. He knew Sam and Dean didn't like going to the hospital unless they absolutely had to, but Alec really hated hospitals.

"I'm fine."

Sam turned around so he could look at him and gently said, "Alec, they can give you stronger medicine than what we have. Stuff that will actually help your headache go away."

Alec started to reply but something outside caught his attention. There was a screeching of tires and Alec acted before he even knew what was happening. They were coming to a corner when he threw open the door, and before Sam and Dean could say anything, he jumped out of the car. He grunted when he landed on the pavement and he had to roll to lessen the impact.

He looked up just as another car came barreling around the corner and slammed into the front side of Harper's truck. Her truck spun around and the car that ran into her stayed in the side of the truck. Another car went flying by until it went right off the side of the road and into a tree.

"That was weird…" Alec mumbled, but the next second he had to move because a fire started under the hood of Harper's truck.

He blurred over to her truck; the door was bent in and Alec had to practically pull it off its hinges to get it open. Harper had a cut on her forehead and she was just starting to come around when Alec forced the door open.

"Alec?" Harper looked at him in bewilderment, but he didn't have much time. The flames were getting stronger; he could already feel the heat from them and he still had to get the other person from their car.

He quickly reached in and unbuckled her seatbelt and then Dean was suddenly there to help. Dean put one arm under Harper's knees and one behind her back and lifted her out of the truck.

"I'm alright…what about the other car?" Harper asked in confusion.

Dean looked to Alec for help; he knew that Dean wanted to get Harper out of harm's way and he couldn't blame him.

He blurred to the other car and found that Sam was already there; he was trying to get the door open, but he wasn't getting it very far. The door had been dented in like Harper's had been and Alec quickly pulled the door clean off the car.

There was a girl in the driver's seat with long blonde hair, who was looking at them with wide eyes that were quickly filling with tears.

"Are you hurt?" Sam asked quickly and the girl shook her head.

"That car was chasing me! I don't know what happened! I didn't mean to run in to anyone!" The girl explained in a rush.

"It's ok, what's your name?" Sam asked gently.

"…Tera," She answered.

"Ok Tera, I'm Sam and this is Alec. We're going to help you out ok?" Sam said in his soothing voice. Tera nodded her ok and Sam continued, "You said that other car was chasing you?"

Tera nodded, "It was Jacob, but not really...I mean, it was him, but he wasn't acting like himself. I saw him kill someone! I ran to my car and he started chasing me!" Tera was trying to explain, but she could hardly get the words out with how much she was crying.

Sam suddenly turned to Alec and asked, "Can you go check out the other car? I need to get Tera out of here…But be careful!"

Alec nodded and then he took off down the hill where the third car had crashed. He was still pretty new to hunting, but even he thought it sounded like this Jacob guy was possessed by a demon. He slowed down as he got closer to the car, and he cautiously walked to the driver's door.

The guy's car was wrapped around a tree and Alec knew that any normal person would be dead. He peeked in to the window, but the guy in the front wasn't moving so he walked a little closer. He was so concerned with the possibility that the guy in the car could be a demon that he didn't even notice the smell of smoke.

"Dude, if you're alive, and not possessed by a demon, can you say something…or move or something…so I know you're alive…" Alec knew it was a long shot, but if the guy was still alive, then he needed to get him out of here.

The guy didn't answer, but Alec needed to be sure before he just left the guy. He pulled one of the back doors open and then crawled inside. He had to be careful of the broken glass, but he didn't have to go far to be able to check the guy for a pulse.

He dropped his head when he couldn't find one and slowly got out of the car. It was almost too late when he finally noticed the smoke billowing from the hood of the car.

"Dammit…" He took off, but the car exploded a second later and threw him off his feet. He hit the ground hard and then everything went black.

* * *

_Big thanks to my friend Tera for letting me use her name as one of my characters! Hope you guys are liking the story!_

_More soon..._


	4. Chapter 4

Dean carried Harper all the way back to where he had parked the Impala. She usually hated being carried, but she was pretty shaken up from the crash.

"Are you hurt?" Dean asked in concern. She had a cut on her forehead, but other than that she looked ok. But Dean had to ask just to be sure.

Harper shook her head no and put her hand against his chest to help comfort him. "I guess I'll have to get a new truck now…"

Dean knew she was trying to reassure him that she was ok, but he wasn't able to get rid of the sight of the other car slamming into hers. Or the fear that had washed through him when he didn't know if she was hurt or not.

He slowly set her on her feet once they were at the Impala, but he kept his hand on her back to keep her steady. He opened the driver's door and made her sit down before he turned to look where Sam and Alec were.

He saw Sam by the other car that crashed with a girl next to him. He already disliked that girl, which he knew wasn't really fair, but she was the one who wrecked in to Harper and he wasn't going to forget that.

"Alec is going to be in so much trouble…" He muttered under his breath when he saw that Sam and the girl were walking their way.

"Why is he going to be in trouble?" Harper asked, making Dean turn back around.

"He jumped out of the car before you even crashed and he didn't say anything before he did it," Dean said with a sigh. He hadn't known what was going on; all he knew was that Alec had decided to bail out of the car while they were moving 65 miles per hour and then Harper's truck was being pushed off the road. He'd slammed on the brakes, torn between being worried about Alec and worried about Harper.

"What was he supposed to say? 'Hey, by the way I'm going to jump out of the car now and save Harper'?" Harper asked with a small smile.

Dean rolled his eyes, "No, but a 'stop the car' would have been nice."

Dean turned back around and saw that Sam and the girl were almost to where they were. He could tell the girl was upset and that Sam had his arm around her to help comfort her. He scowled when he noticed that Alec wasn't behind them.

"Where's Alec?" Dean asked as Sam and the girl got closer.

"He's down by the other car," Sam answered.

There was an explosion and Dean's heart nearly stopped. He didn't even know where the explosion had come from, but he just knew that Alec was there. It must have been the big brother in him, but he knew Alec was in trouble. He didn't even think before he took off running and he could hear Sam's footsteps running right behind him.

He ran to where the third car had flown off the road and skidded to a stop. "Do you see him?" Dean asked Sam breathlessly and Sam shook his head.

Dean stumbled down the hill as fast as he could; there was so much smoke it was hard to see where anything was.

"Alec!?" Dean called out, just hoping he would get some kind of reply, but he didn't get one. He scanned the ground for any sign of Alec, but there was so much debris on the ground it was hard to tell what everything was.

Sam suddenly hit Dean's chest and pointed. Dean finally saw the form on the ground that could be Alec. He ran over and landed on his knees next to him; he was lying face down and he was so still that Dean almost feared the worst.

He put two fingers to the side of Alec's neck and checked for a pulse. "He's alive," Dean breathed out with relief and Sam breathed out his own relief.

Dean carefully checked Alec for breaks; he was afraid to move him too much until he knew for sure that nothing serious was broken. He suddenly felt something warm against Alec's side and found that there was a piece of metal stuck in his side. It wasn't very deep, but Dean didn't want to take it out just in case it had punctured something important. If he took it out and it had punctured something, he wouldn't be able to stop the bleeding and Alec would die right there. Sam was on Alec's other side and Dean pointed out the piece of metal so he'd be careful.

"How bad?" Sam asked quietly.

Dean brushed Alec's hair back and checked his head before he answered, "His concussion is gonna be even worse and he's got some metal in his side…we need to get him to a hospital just to be sure…"

"Do you think it's ok to move him, or should we wait for the paramedics?"

"Nothing's broken but he's losing blood…I think we need to move him out of the smoke…" Dean really did think that was the best thing they could do for Alec, but at the same time he didn't want to make things worse by moving him.

"What about the cars? Should I call it in?" Sam asked.

Dean nodded and then decided that there were more pros than cons in moving Alec, so he dug the keys out of his pocket and tossed them to Sam. Then he turned Alec over and picked him up. He was as gentle as he could be, but part of him wished the pain would help wake Alec up. He wasn't used to Alec not moving around or the silence and he just wanted Alec to reassure him that he was going to be ok.

Sam ran ahead so he could bring the car to them, but Dean kept his pace slow and steady so he wouldn't jostle Alec too much. He knew Alec would hate being in the hospital, but he didn't have any other options. Alec was hurt and Dean would do what it took to make sure the kid was ok. Alec was like another little brother to him and it was his job to protect him.

Dean carried Alec up the hill and he was glad to see the Impala waiting for them. Harper was in the backseat and the other girl was sitting by Sam in the front. Dean carefully put Alec in the backseat and Harper helped keep him up while Dean got in. He leaned Alec against himself once he was inside and Sam took off down the road.

"How far is it to the closest hospital?" Sam asked the girl after a few miles of driving.

"It's not far, you just have to go down this road for a few miles," she answered quietly, she was probably in shock, but Dean couldn't bring himself to care.

"Who is this and why is she in my car," Dean growled.

"This is Tera-" Sam started, but Tera interrupted him.

"Look, I'm sorry I hit your girlfriend over there, but it wasn't my fault. And it's not my fault that your little brother went and got himself caught up in an explosion, so you need to back off!"

"If it wasn't for my little brother, you'd still be stuck in your car!" Dean wanted to say more, but Harper put her hand on his shoulder to stop him.

Alec's breathing suddenly picked up and Dean's attention focused in on him. Alec's eyes shot open and he immediately started struggling against Dean's hold. He was trying to get out of the car and Dean figured he didn't really know where he was. Alec managed to elbow Dean in the ribs and Dean grunted out, but he didn't release Alec.

"Dammit Alec! It's me!" Dean yelled as he pulled Alec back again.

Alec only struggled a few seconds longer before his burst of energy ran out and he fell back against Dean's chest. He was breathing heavily and his eyes were closed, but after a minute he spoke, "Sorry…I didn't know…" His voice was tinged with pain and Dean didn't know how to make it better for him.

"It's ok, you didn't know where you were," Dean murmured softly.

Alec tried to shift, but he hissed in pain and Dean put his hand against his chest. Alec looked down and groaned when he saw the metal in his side, "We aren't going to the hospital are we?"

"Yes Alec, and there's no way you're going to talk me out of this."

"Dean, I can't go to a hospital…" Alec said quietly.

"Why not?" Dean asked gently; he assumed that Alec had a fear of hospitals from the way he had to grow up as a kid, but he didn't know if that was the whole reason.

Alec raised his eyebrows and gestured to himself and said quietly, "Transgenic…remember?"

Dean just looked back at Alec; he didn't really know why that meant Alec couldn't go to the hospital. "So? Alec, you have to see a doctor."

Alec sighed and thought for a minute until he finally said, "Fine. But you can't let them give me any blood and you can't let them take any blood. Ok?"

"Why?" Dean asked in confusion.

"I have a bad reaction to ordinary blood and if they test my blood Manticore will find me." Alec's eyes were begging him to understand. Alec was so expressive when he wanted Dean to understand something that he couldn't really explain. Dean could usually get a better idea of what was going on just by looking at his eyes sometimes.

"Alright, I won't let them do anything with blood. I won't let you out of my sight ok?" Dean tried to reassure and Alec nodded.

Alec leaned his head back against Dean in exhaustion, but a moment later he spoke again, "Tera…I'm sorry...if that Jacob guy was your friend…I'm sorry, but he's dead…"

Tera wiped her eyes and nodded, "I thought so…I'm sorry you got hurt, but thank you for checking."

"Tera, did you know Jacob very long?" Sam asked after a minute.

She nodded again, "He was my best friend since high school. He would have never killed anyone."

"He killed someone?" Harper immediately asked.

"He started acting weird a few days ago and I went to his apartment to ask him what was going on. I wanted to surprise him so I used my own key to get in and I saw him kill his roommate! They had been friends longer than we had! I just don' know why he would do it…"

"You might think this is crazy-"

"Sam, don't," Dean immediately cut in and he met Sam's eyes in the rearview mirror. He didn't think Tera would be able to handle the fact that her best friend had been possessed by a demon.

Sam didn't say anything else, but Dean saw him barely shake his head no to Tera. He still didn't like her, even if she did have a good reason for crashing into Harper. Alec tried again to get comfortable and Dean just barely caught him squeezing his eyes shut in pain. "Easy, we're almost there," Dean said quietly.

Dean was actually happy to see the hospital come into view, even though he knew he was going to have a long night ahead of him. Doctors always thought they knew everything and Dean had gotten into more than one argument with them in the past. They weren't going to like not running every test they could think of, but Dean wasn't budging on this. He was going to do what it took to get Alec back to full health and those doctors were going to have to go through him before they got to Alec.

Before Sam turned off the car Dean leaned forward and whispered so no one else could hear him, "Don't let her out of your sight…I don't trust her." Sam nodded so Dean turned back to Alec. "Alright kiddo, we're at the hospital."

He helped Alec out of the car, but his legs collapsed as soon as he was standing and Dean had to grab him. He pulled Alec's arm over his shoulder so he could support him across the parking lot.

"No blood…" Alec mumbled as they got closer to the entrance.

He looked up at Dean with pleading eyes and Dean had no problem promising, "No blood."And then he and Alec stumbled their way inside.

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_More soon..._


	5. Chapter 5

"C'mon," Sam muttered after Dean and Alec disappeared inside the hospital. He got out of the car and opened the backdoor for Harper; he held out his hand and helped her out of the car. She was still unsteady from the crash and Sam wanted to get her into the hospital as well.

Tera waited for them to walk around the car and then all three of them made their way inside. Harper checked in at the desk and then sat down with them and a pile of paperwork. An older nurse walked up to Sam and held out some papers.

"Your brothers came in a minute ago and said you would fill these out," She said and then she walked back to the desk.

Sam didn't really mind since the paperwork would give him something to do, but he didn't think about the possibility that he wouldn't know the answers. He had no idea what kind of vaccinations or treatments Alec had been given at Manticore. He didn't know any of his previous major injuries or if he'd had surgery; he couldn't answer any of the questions. He ran his hand through his hair in aggravation and started bouncing his leg.

Harper must have noticed he was acting strange because she put her hand over his but he didn't look up. "I think he's going to be ok," Harper reassured softly. He still refused to look up so Harper asked, "Sam, what's wrong?"

Sam gestured at the papers in his lap, "I don't know the answers to any of these…"

"It's ok, we'll figure it out."

"Harper Thompson," one of the nurses called out.

"I'll be back soon," Harper said and then she got up and disappeared behind a set of doors.

Sam pushed the papers aside; he put his elbows on his knees and put his head in his hands. He should have seen something like this coming. They'd been hunting nonstop and a trip to the hospital should have been expected. He should have asked Alec weeks ago what major injuries he's had, but he didn't think about it.

He didn't notice Tera reaching over and grabbing the paperwork until she spoke, "You can fill some of these out…what's your brother's full name?"

Sam had to think fast to remember what their alias was going to be, "Alec Ford…"

Tera wrote it down and then said, "See that one was easy…when's his birthday?"

Alec didn't know when he was born so Sam just made up a birthday, "August 22…1985…"

Tera looked up and smiled, "Piece of cake." Sam smiled and then Tera asked, "Should I keep going?"

Sam shook his head and took the papers back from Tera. She did help him focus again on what he needed to do, but he was glad he could fill them out again by himself. He was going to have to make up the information and he didn't want Tera to notice his uncertainty in his answers.

"You were going to say something in the car…" Tera started hesitantly after a few minutes of silence.

Sam stopped writing and looked up. It was his turn to hesitate; Dean made sure he knew that Tera shouldn't know about demons and he could see Dean's reasoning behind it. Tera had been through a lot and who knew how she would handle the information. He finally decided that she deserved to know the truth, "I'm not going to lie to you…we think your friend was possessed by a demon…"

Tera raised her eyebrows and started to smile, but stopped when she noticed that he was being serious. "You're kidding right? Demons aren't real."

Sam gave her a small smile, "I wish I was, but demons are real and me and my brothers hunt them."

Tera was looking at him like he was crazy and he could only hope that she wasn't going to freak out and run off.

"Tera listen, I wouldn't tell you this if I didn't think you could handle it. Think about it…your friend suddenly changed, killed someone, and then went after you. You can't tell me something weird is going on," Sam said in a rush.

Tera looked around the room and then finally said, "…I still don't believe you…but you did save my life…What happens now?"

Sam scowled, "What do you mean?"

"You said you hunt demons…so what do you do next?" Tera asked curiously.

"Well…we have to find out if there are more demons and then we'll have to get rid of them…" Sam replied hesitantly. He didn't know how much he should actually tell her.

"If you and Dean are looking for the demons, who's going to stay with Alec while he's in the hospital?" Tera asked in confusion.

"What? Ummm…I don't think he's hurt that badly…" Sam was completely caught off guard and he hoped Tera wouldn't think his answer was insane.

Tera did in fact look at him like he was insane, but she wasn't running so Sam hoped that she might be able to help them. His phone suddenly started vibrating and Sam was surprised to see that Dean was calling him.

"Yeah?" Sam answered quietly; he didn't want to disturb the other people waiting.

"Sam, we have a problem…"

"What is it?" Sam was already up and moving toward the doors that Harper had disappeared behind and Tera was right behind him.

"They noticed the barcode and they know he's a transgenic," Dean's voice was calm, but Sam could detect the underlying worry.

A nurse was trying to keep up with him and tell him he couldn't be back here, but he just ignored her and asked, "Is he good to go?"

It was quiet for a moment and Sam assumed that Dean was talking to Alec. "Yeah, but we're gonna need a distraction…"

"Sam what's going on?" Tera asked quietly.

"We need to find Harper," Sam whispered back.

Tera didn't question him any further and she started peeking around curtains to help him look.

"Start talking Dean," Sam said impatiently as he peeked behind another curtain.

"They stitched him up, but they saw the barcode when they were checking his head. Apparently transgenics are still big news because they had security here like two minutes later. They locked us in a room on the third floor. Where are you?"

"I'm in the ER looking for Harper," Sam said. He almost jumped when Harper suddenly poked her head out from behind the curtain. "Never mind, I found her…You ok?"

Harper nodded and then whispered in confusion, "What's going on?" Tera walked back up to them a moment later.

"Dean and Alec are stuck on the third floor…" Sam replied quickly and then he went back to Dean, "What kind of escape are we talking about here?"

"We could always go out the window…" Sam just barely heard Alec mutter.

"Please tell me Alec didn't just say what I think he did," Sam said, but he couldn't keep the smile off his face. Alec would be crazy enough to do it and he didn't know if Dean would go along with the idea or not.

Dean chuckled, "You heard right…but don't worry, I'm not going along with it."

"Alright, I've got an idea," Sam said as he looked over at Harper and Tera.

* * *

"You good to go?" Dean suddenly asked and Alec looked up to see that Dean was talking to him. He nodded and then Dean went back to talking on the phone.

He was hurting; he didn't want to admit it, but he couldn't focus and he just hoped he could actually make it out of there. The doctors had found him out before they'd given him anything for the pain. He didn't want to complain, but his side was on fire and it felt like his head was about to slide right off. Transgenics were tough, but explosions were pretty good at taking them out.

They'd seen his barcode and immediately knew what he was. He didn't expect the news to be so widespread about transgenics, but now that he thought about it, it was big news for the ordinaries and they wouldn't want to drop the story.

Dean started telling Sam what happened and Alec tried to focus on Sam's half of the conversation.

"What kind of escape are we talking about here?"

"We could always go out the window…" Alec muttered without thinking about it and Dean shot him a look.

He shrugged back, but then lost track of the conversation between Sam and Dean. The doctors had been nice enough to put them in a room with a bed and Alec was stretched out on it. Dean was pacing the room and kept shooting him worried looks while he talked on the phone. He didn't know how they were going to get out of this one without alerting everyone; he could hardly walk straight and Dean wouldn't be able to just walk out since they looked alike.

Dean suddenly hung up and started looking around the room. Alec didn't know what he was looking for and it was taking more effort than he liked to follow Dean. He closed his eyes instead to try and ease some of the pain.

"Sam's got an escape plan, but it's gonna be a miracle if it works," Dean muttered after a minute.

Alec threw one arm over his eyes and mumbled, "What do we have to do?"

"_You_ don't have to do anything," Dean said and Alec could hear the smile in his voice. He was almost curious enough to open his eyes, but he decided Dean would probably tell him soon anyway.

"What are you looking for?" Alec asked after Dean dumped the contents of something on the floor.

"I'm looking for any medicine they might have lyin' around," Dean said and Alec could hear him opening drawers and moving things around. "Dammit…no wonder they locked us up in here; they cleaned this place out…"

Alec was tempted to get up and help search the room, but Dean must have known what he was thinking because a hand landed on his chest a second later. He moved his arm away from his eyes and looked up at Dean.

"You sure you're ok?" Dean asked quietly.

"Yeah…I've had way worse than this," Alec tried to reassure.

Dean nodded his head in understanding and then cleared his throat, "…Alec…I thought you were dead…I heard the explosion and you were just lying there…" Now the hand on his chest made more sense; Dean was reassuring himself that Alec was still alive.

"Dean…" Alec didn't know how to comfort him. He never really gave much thought to his own wellbeing, but he would have freaked out if it had been Sam or Dean in his place.

Dean raised up his hand to stop him and then said, "I know we don't really talk about…well Sam's more of the emotional one…anyway, I don't know if you know this or not, but we think of you as a brother and we don't want anything to happen to you…"

Alec didn't know what to say; he had only wanted Sam and Dean to accept him, he'd never thought they would consider him a brother. He already thought of them as brothers and it was almost too good to be true that they thought the same about him.

There was suddenly a loud noise outside the room that had both of them looking to the door. Dean clapped his hands and smiled, "It's show time!"

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More soon...


	6. Chapter 6

Dean had to force himself to sit down and act like he wasn't interested at all in what was going on outside their door. There had been a crash and it took everything in him not to go running outside to look.

"Alec, sleep," Dean muttered quickly when he heard the door handle turn.

Dean looked over his shoulder as one of the security guys poked his head inside. Dean shot a panicked look at Alec so it seemed like he was worried the guy would wake up his little brother. The guy looked at Alec, who must have been pretty convincing since the guy's look changed from stern to concerned and he started to take a step inside. Dean shook his head and waved the guy off and the guy nodded once and closed the door again.

Dean heard the lock turn and then Sam yelled, "Don't just stand there! Help me!"

Dean and Alec kept up their act since they weren't sure if the guards were actually gone or not. Dean wasn't entirely sure if Alec was acting, but he tapped Alec on the hand to signal that he shouldn't move and he got up and walked to the door. He pulled out his lock picks and quickly got to work. He just got the door unlocked when it swung open and he had to jump back in surprise.

"It's just me!" Harper suddenly said as she rolled in a wheelchair with a bag sitting on it. She closed the door behind her and then looked back to Dean. She had a neat row of stiches over the cut on her forehead and she was wearing light blue scrubs and a scrub cap, instead of her normal jeans and t-shirt.

"What's going on?" Alec asked, sitting up slowly and leaning against the wall.

"I'm here to rescue you," Harper said with a smile. She started pulling out the things that were in the bag and Dean didn't know what to think of all the medical supplies she was pulling out. She handed Dean some scrubs; one was light blue and the other was a darker shade and Dean still didn't know what the plan was.

Seeing his look of confusion, Harper quickly explained, "The lighter ones are for Alec; me and you are going to be interns," she said as she looked at Alec and then she looked back to Dean and said, "You're going to wear the darker ones and pose as a resident, and obviously Alec's older brother. If anyone stops us, Alec fell while he was in surgery and hit his head and we're taking him to CT. Any question?"

"How'd you get these?" Dean asked. He wasn't sure if this plan was going to work, but he didn't have a better idea and he didn't know how much time Sam's diversion was going to give them.

"I raided the locker rooms…we have to hurry, I don't know how much time we're going to have…" Harper looked at her watch as she said this and then pulled out the rest of their disguises.

Dean quickly changed and then helped Alec. He was pretty dizzy and when he stood he had to lean against Dean. He didn't complain at all about having to ride in a wheelchair and Dean didn't know if he was just playing along with their cover or if he was really too hurt to complain.

Harper handed him one more thing and then grabbed up their clothes and stuffed them in the bag. Dean looked at what Harper had given him and was surprised to see a pair of glasses. She shrugged at him, "It'll help with the disguise…" Dean didn't argue; he'd try anything to make their escape go smoother.

He caught Harper's eyes traveling across his body and he smirked, "You checkin' me out?"

She raised her eyebrows and shrugged again, "What can I say? You look good in scrubs."

Dean was about to reply, but he was distracted when Alec sank down heavily into the wheelchair and closed his eyes in pain. Harper shot Dean a look of concern, "Maybe we really should take him to CT…"

Dean tied on the scrub cap and then kneeled down next to Alec and met his eyes. "You gotta tell me the truth here, ok? How badly are you hurt?"

Alec gave him a small smile, "I told you when I first met you; all I need is some sleep and I'm good."

Dean wasn't completely convinced, but they were running out of time. He patted Alec's leg and stood up and looked at Harper. He gestured to the door and said, "Lead the way."

Harper pushed the wheelchair, but when Dean tried to take over she smacked his hand away. "You're a resident, I'm an intern. I'd be pushing the wheelchair," She whispered and Dean dropped his hand.

They walked fast and Dean only worried for a second that they looked suspicious, but then he remembered they were in a hospital and everyone seemed to move fast. They turned a corner, but then Alec hissed, "Stop! Our doctor friend is up ahead…" It was the doctor that had put them under lock down and Dean didn't think their disguises would hold up.

Harper immediately stopped and looked to Dean. He looked down the hall and saw that the doctor was talking to security and hadn't spotted them yet.

"Walk normal…" Dean muttered and they started moving again. They walked right by the doctor and Dean held his breath as they passed him. They kept walking down the hall and Dean was just about to breathe a sigh of relief.

"Excuse me!"

Dean looked down at Harper and barely motioned for her to keep walking.

"Excuse me!" The doctor's voice was closer and his footsteps were catching up to them.

Dean closed his eyes and stopped, bringing Alec and Harper to a stop beside him. He reluctantly turned and faced the doctor. He was a little shorter than Dean with a pretty bad receding hairline and a crooked nose. Dean couldn't remember the guy's name to save his life, but he didn't really have to since the guy had a nametag on his lab coat that said Dr. Marr.

"Yes?" Dean asked somewhat impatiently.

"What's going on here?" Dr. Marr asked back.

"Carter fell while we were in surgery and hit his head so we're taking him to CT," Harper replied quickly before Dean had a chance.

"I didn't ask you," Dr. Marr snarled to Harper. Her eyes instantly turned cold and Dean grabbed her hand to hold her back.

"I don't think we've met…" Dr. Marr said slowly, looking at Dean. He didn't catch on that he was about a second away from getting his eyes torn out.

"Dr. Tyler," Dean said as he shook Dr. Marr's hand. "Carter's my brother; I wanted to make sure he was ok."

Dr. Marr looked down the hall and then looked back behind him. "You know you're going the wrong way for CT?" Dr. Marr asked after a moment.

"Shoot! I could've sworn I was going the right way…" Harper said with puzzlement.

"That's ok! I'll walk you there," Dr. Marr said with a smile.

"You've gotta be kidding me…" Alec muttered under his breath.

Harper looked at Dean with panic, but he didn't have any way to get out of this one. They couldn't just take off without looking suspicious, but if they stayed then Dr. Marr would eventually see Alec's barcode again.

"So, how long have you been at this hospital? I'm surprised I haven't seen you around…" Dr. Marr said as they started walking back the way they came.

"I haven't been here long. We just moved here from Kansas," Dean answered as confidently as he could.

"What's your specialty in?" Dr. Marr just couldn't walk in silence and Dean was really getting tired of it.

"Trauma," Dean replied easily. He'd been around hospitals enough to know how they worked and trauma was what he knew best, and what came to mind first.

"What school did you attend?"

"You know, I'm gettin' real tired of the 20 questions…" Dean stopped walking and Dr. Marr turned to face him with his mouth hanging open. The guy didn't even know what was coming when Dean pulled back his arm and delivered a right hook to his jaw. Marr staggered back and held his hand against his jaw. The guy was a dick and Dean only wished he'd punched him sooner.

"C'mon!" Dean said and Harper and Alec didn't need to be told twice. Harper grabbed their bag of clothes as Alec stood up and swung the wheelchair in Dr. Marr's path. He ran right into it and fell in a heap on the floor. Dean couldn't help but laugh at the look on the guy's face and he clapped Alec on the shoulder as they ran.

Even though Alec was hurt, he was still faster than Harper and Dean and he thought it was probably because of the adrenaline. Alec skidded to a stop, "Harper, which way?"

"Left!" Harper said as they caught up to him.

"Take the stairs so they can't trap us in the elevators!" Dean called out. People were moving fast to get out of their way, but Dean could hear footsteps coming up behind them. Alec threw open the stairway door and they all started running down.

"Security is gonna lock the place down!" Harper yelled over the sound of their footsteps.

"We're running out of stairs…What's the plan?" Alec yelled back.

"Don't go to the front! That's where they're gonna wait for us!" Harper said.

"Alec, we're going with your idea," Dean finally said. He started to dig out his phone so he could talk to Sam.

"You're joking right?" Alec yelled out incredulously and then he muttered, "I was joking…"

"What idea?" Harper asked.

"We're going out the window. Find an empty room," Dean said quickly. They ran on to the first floor and Alec started looking in each room. He found an empty one and he slammed the door closed after they were all inside. Alec leaned against the closed door and slid down until he was sitting with his head in his hands. Dean looked him over quickly as he dialed Sam's number.

"Yeah?"

"Are you at the car?" Dean immediately asked.

"Yeah we're here…where are you?"

"We?"

"Tera's with me," Sam stated.

Dean groaned, but he didn't have time to argue. "Fine. We need a pick up. We're going through a window on the east side of the hospital."

"We'll be there."

Dean hung up, but he almost jumped when something slammed into the door.

"It never ends…" Alec muttered as he slowly got to his feet. He turned and pushed against the door to keep it closed.

Harper was over at the window trying to get it to open, but it wouldn't budge. Dean ran over to try and help her, but he couldn't get it to move either.

"Dean, this door's not gonna hold long!" Alec called out.

"We need something to break through," Dean said to Harper. She nodded and started looking around the room.

Alec grunted and was pushed backward as the door was broken in. Alec quickly recovered and threw a punch at the first guy that walked through the door.

"Dean!" Harper stopped him from joining in the fight and she rolled over the stool that was in the room. "Will this work?"

"I hope so…go help Alec," Dean said as he picked up the stool.

Harper ran over and immediately punched one of the security guys in the throat. Alec kicked one guy's knee out, but he didn't move fast enough to avoid a punch across his cheek.

Dean swung the chair hard at the window, but it just barely cracked. It took him two more tires before the window finally shattered.

"Let's go!" Dean yelled.

Harper ducked to avoid a punch and kicked a guy back. Alec was trying to catch his balance after being pushed back. Harper took down the last guy and then grabbed Alec's wrist and led him to the broken window. Alec was still graceful as he maneuvered himself out the window without hitting any of the pieces of glass. He turned and helped Harper as she went through next. Dean had to hurry through the window since the security guys were starting to get back up and he cut his arm on some glass in his haste.

The three of them took off running across the blacktop once Dean was through the window. He scanned the parking lot until he finally saw the Impala. Sam had her parked so she was aimed for the exit and Dean was grateful that they would have a quick getaway.

"What's with leaving evidence behind?" Alec asked as he glanced at the cut on Dean's arm.

"Not all of us have cat DNA…" Dean replied back. He had to physically stop himself from messing up Alec's hair. He'd gotten used to teasing him like that, but now he didn't want to make his headache any worse.

"You should get some…it comes in handy," Alec said with a smile. Dean could tell he was trying to cover up how much pain he was in with humor; it was something he did himself, but Alec wasn't as good at putting the mask back in place. Every step they took only made his head hurt worse and Dean couldn't wait to get them to a place he could lay down.

"There's never a dull moment with you," Harper said with a smile as they slowed down.

Dean gave her a cocky smile, "Honey, that's just a normal day for us."

Harper rolled her eyes and bumped into him, "You're just lucky I was around to bail you out again."

"I would have figured something out!" Dean defended.

Harper gave him a genuine smile, "I know you would have; I'm just glad I got to come along." Dean smiled back at her and then she continued, "C'mon, I think Alec needs some rest."

Dean nodded in agreement. Alec was starting to fall behind; his adrenaline rush was running out. Dean couldn't believe how much of a disaster this trip to the hospital had been. They'd already gone through a lot and they hadn't even started the hunt.

* * *

_Hope you all are enjoying the story! I forgot to put this in the last chapter, but a big thank you to TheMysteriousComicGeek for giving me the idea for the hospital, I loved it and I hope you all do too! The next chapter will have Sam's part of the escape so stay tuned!_


	7. Chapter 7

"Are you sure about this?" Sam asked Tera again. "You don't have to if you don't want to…"

Sam and Harper had come up with a plan to get Dean and Alec out of their room, but he had no idea if it was going to work. Harper was finding all the supplies they would need while Sam and Tera waited for her to get back. They were on the third floor hiding in a supply closet and Sam was making sure that Tera knew her part in all of this.

"Sam, I want to help," Tera firmly stated.

Sam took a deep breath, "Alright, as soon as Harper gets back-"

"I'm back!" Harper said with a smile, making Sam and Tera jump. She had a wheelchair with a bag on it and she was already wearing some scrubs. She handed Tera some white pajama pants and a white shirt and then passed Sam what looked like a hospital security outfit.

Sam didn't waste any time getting changed and he saw that Tera didn't hesitate either. "Are we all clear on what to do?" Sam asked.

"Psych patient on the loose; create havoc but don't get caught," Tera said with a smile.

"Go rescue the prisoners after security runs off," Harper replied with a smirk after Tera.

Sam took another deep breath, "Ok, we ready to do this?" They both nodded so Sam said, "Ok Tera, you're up…"

Tera shot him a reassuring smile and then opened the door and walked out. Sam looked at Harper who said, "It's going to work Sam."

Sam nodded and then stood up and peeked outside. Tera was walking dreamily down the hallway, but she hadn't drawn very much attention yet. She stopped at a wire rack with supplies on it and tipped it over. It landed with a crash that had everyone on the floor looking and Tera started running.

Sam watched one of the guards that were standing in front of Dean and Alec's room open the door and peek inside. Sam took off once the guard closed the door and chased after Tera.

"Don't just stand there! Help me!" Sam yelled to the two guards.

Tera ran and turned a sharp corner. Sam just barely caught her wink as she melted into the shadows and he passed the corner. He made sure the guards were still following him and hadn't noticed Tera disappearing around the corner. He ran down a few more halls so they would be far enough away from Tera before he stopped and put his hands on his knees.

The two guards caught up to him and one of them breathlessly asked, "Where did she go?"

Sam pretended he was breathing hard and said, "I don't know…I lost her…"

"What happened?" The other guard asked.

"She jumped one of the guys upstairs. We need to find her fast!" Sam explained quickly.

"Alright, we'll split up and look for her," The first guard said.

"I'll back track to see if she doubled back," Sam said and the other two nodded.

He breathed a sigh of relief and started to jog back to where he'd left Tera. He could only hope that Harper's end of the plan was working and they would all be out of here before anything else happened. Sam turned the corner and Tera appeared out of nowhere, making Sam jump.

"Did they fall for it?" Tera whispered.

"Yup, you did great!" Sam said with a smile.

"In all the planning we did, you forgot to mention _our _escape plan…" Tera said after a moment.

Sam hesitated, "…I don't think you'll like it…"

"I helped break your brothers out of a hospital! I'm on a roll!" Tera said with a smile, "Whatever it is, I'm game!"

Sam gave a nervous chuckle, "We're using Alec's idea…and going out the window."

It was quiet until finally, "Seriously?!" Tera asked and Sam nodded. "How exactly are we supposed to do that?"

Sam ran a hand through his hair, "We have some rope…I'll lower you down and then I'll follow…"

"Out the window…" Tera said uneasily.

"Out the window," Sam agreed. He didn't like this idea, but they would be watching the front door and they needed to get to the car before Dean, Alec, and Harper got out of the hospital. "C'mon, we don't have very much time…"

Sam led the way to Alec and Dean's abandoned room; he knew that if security figured out Dean and Alec weren't in their room, they wouldn't have any reason to come back to it. Luckily, the windows upstairs opened inward just a little so Sam wouldn't have to break anything and draw attention to them.

Sam quickly took apart the window and then turned to Tera, "You ready to do this?"

Tera closed her eyes briefly and then nodded. Sam fashioned a type of harness around Tera's legs and hips and mumbled a quick apology while he did it.

"Are you sure this will hold?" Tera asked doubtfully.

"I'm sure. Me and Dean used to do this all the time," Sam reassured.

Tera took one more deep breath and then finally nodded and Sam led her over to the window. "This is insane…" Tera muttered.

"I know…just, don't tell Alec…" Sam said. He hated to think what Alec would say if he found out they used his idea; Sam would never live it down.

Tera nodded but she still hesitated by the window. She suddenly surprised Sam by wrapping her arms around his neck and going up on her tip toes to press her lips against his. Sam was only frozen for a second before her wrapped his arms around her waist and returned the kiss. Her lips were soft against his and he was almost tempted to just stay like this for a while. To just stay lost in this moment and not worry about anything else, but he still had a part to play in the escape and he couldn't let this distract him.

They were both slightly breathless when they finally pulled away. Sam looked at Tera and raised his eyebrows in question but she just shrugged and said, "For luck…and if I die, I want that to be my last memory."

Sam smiled, "You're not gonna die…Now c'mon, no more stalling."

Tera took one more deep breath and then started to climb out the window. Sam put the rope behind his lower back and then slowly started to lower Tera to the ground. Her hands were gripping the rope as tightly as they could, but Sam didn't have time to reassure her. It was a long way to the ground and it seemed to take even longer for him to lower her all the way to the ground.

Sam was usually the one being lowered to the ground. Dean would always say that Sam should go first just in case the rope wouldn't hold, but Sam knew the truth. Dean wanted to make sure Sam got away; if one of them was going to get caught, it would be Dean and Dean always made sure Sam made it out. It was weird being on the other end of the rope. Now he had to figure out how Dean always managed to get out.

He looked out the window and saw that Tera had gotten out of the rope and was looking up at him, waiting. He quickly tied the end of the rope to the bottom of the bed and then jumped up and down to psych himself up.

"Ok, I got this," Sam breathed out. He grabbed the rope and then maneuvered himself out the window. He had to force himself not to look down as he made his way down the rope. He'd have to remember to thank Dean sometime for always taking this part of the escape.

His feet finally hit the ground and he released the breath he'd been holding. "Piece of cake," Sam muttered when he saw that Tera was looking at him. He chuckled and then admitted, "Ok, I never want to do that again."

Tera smiled, "I completely agree."

"C'mon, we have to get to the car," Sam said. He grabbed Tera's hand and they started running.

They just got to the car when Sam's phone started ringing. He grabbed it and saw that it was Dean and he didn't know if he should be relieved or worried. This call was either to tell him that they were out and needed to know where he was or that they'd run into another problem.

"Yeah?" He quickly answered.

"Are you at the car?" Dean immediately asked. Sam couldn't tell if the escape plan was working or not from Dean's question.

"Yeah we're here…where are you?" _Please, please, please be outside…_

"We?" Dean did not sound happy.

"Tera's with me," Sam stated. He knew Dean didn't really like Tera, but Sam couldn't believe all that she'd done for them. She was good in his book and he wasn't going to let Dean change his mind.

Dean groaned, "Fine. We need a pick up. We're going through a window on the east side of the hospital."

"We'll be there." Sam hung up and then looked at Tera, "You're going to come with us right?"

"Of course! I want to see what happens next," Tera said with a smile.

They both got in the car and Sam drove to the east exit so they would have a clean getaway and then they waited.

"So, are Harper and Dean together?" Tera asked after they waited for a minute.

Sam took a breath to try and come up with an answer. Dean and Harper's relationship was complicated and he didn't really know how to explain all the history they had. "They should be…" Sam finally said.

"Why aren't they?"

Sam gave a little chuckle, "They've been together some, but it's always short…He thinks it's too dangerous for her and gets overprotective and she likes to settle down for a while and he keeps on the move. He doesn't really want normal…"

"What about Alec? I heard him say he's a transgenic…why's he with you guys?" Tera said slowly. He could just barely hear something off in Tera's voice; he didn't know how she felt about transgenics, but he couldn't really lie to her.

"He is…we kind of found him and he's family now…" Sam laughed, "He doesn't know what normal is, so he doesn't know what he's missing…"

"What about you?" Tera asked quietly.

"I wanted normal my whole life and then I went to college and I had it…"

"What changed?"

"I don't know, now I just want my family," Sam admitted.

He looked in the rearview mirror and saw a window on the first floor shatter. Alec jumped out a moment later follow by Harper and then finally Dean. They started running across the parking lot and Sam started the Impala. It wasn't long before all three of them piled in the backseat; Sam put the car in gear and drove out of the parking lot.

"Nice outfit Sammy," Dean said from behind Tera.

"Look who's talking," Sam muttered with a smile. He looked in the mirror and saw that Alec was sitting behind him with his head leaned back and his eyes closed. "How ya doin' Alec?"

"I could use a nap…"Alec mumbled.

"We'll find a place soon," Sam reassured and then he glanced back at Dean, "How far do you want me to go?"

"We need somewhere far from the hospital…" Dean answered.

"My parents have a cabin not too far from here. It's by itself and quiet if you guys want to use it…" Tera offered.

Sam met Dean's eyes to see what he thought; if Dean really didn't want to go, then Sam would listen and they would find another place. Dean didn't look happy, but he barely nodded to give Sam the ok.

"Are you sure your parents won't mind?" Sam asked quietly.

"They live in California and they let me use the cabin whenever I want, so we're good," Tera replied.

Sam smiled, "Alright, tell me where to go."

* * *

More soon...


	8. Chapter 8

Dean hated to admit it, but the cabin sounded nice. Tera said there were four bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room, and two full sized bathrooms; it was less of a cabin and more of a college party house. He knew he wasn't being reasonable, especially since Tera just helped them escape, but he still didn't like her.

But she wasn't his biggest concern right now; Alec was leaning against the door with his head resting on the window. He was hurt and the hospital had really only made things worse. He would like nothing more than to let Alec sleep for a week, but he knew that wasn't an option.

"Alec, we're here," Harper said quietly as she gently shook his shoulder.

"Be careful, sometimes he wakes up swinging," Dean cautioned as he got out and went to Alec's door.

Harper held him up when Dean opened the door and Alec grumbled just a little. "C'mon kiddo, time for a real bed."

Alec waved him off and whined, "Let me just sleep here…"

"Alec, this is a backseat. There's a bed inside for you," Dean tried to reason.

"I've slept here before…and the bed requires moving…" Alec mumbled.

"I'll give you something to make your head feel better if you go inside," Harper suddenly said.

"Medicine won't work," Alec stated.

"It's not medicine," Harper said with a smile.

"What is it?" Alec sounded more awake and Dean knew he was about to cave in.

"You'll find out when you go inside…" Harper replied.

Alec's curiosity finally won and he allowed Dean to help him out of the car. "This better be one hell of a surprise…" Alec muttered. He was leaning against Dean and Dean just noticed that Alec had a hand pressed against his side where the metal had been.

Harper and Sam grabbed their things while Alec and Dean followed Tera inside. Dean let out an impressed whistle at what they saw inside. It was the nicest place they had stayed in a long time; there was a huge TV sitting in front of a giant sofa and comfy looking chairs. The kitchen was all stainless steel with all the gadgets that you could think of.

"We're staying here?" Alec asked incredulously.

"Yup, now aren't you glad you came inside?" Dean asked back. Alec just rolled his head around until he could glare at Dean who just smirked back. They had stopped in between the kitchen and the living room so Dean looked at Tera and asked, "Which room?"

"Take your pick, there are two beds in each one," Tera said while she turned on some lights.

"She's kidding right?" Alec muttered to Dean.

"I don't think so…" Dean muttered back. He led the way to the first room and was shocked to see the two queen sized beds with a TV on the wall in between them. "This is like a freakin' hotel…"

"Holy cow! This place is insane!" Harper said as she walked in the room and set their bags on the floor. "Have you ever stayed in a place this nice?"

"Not very often…" Dean replied while his eyes scanned the room.

Alec sat down on the edge of the bed, but he misjudged where the edge was and ended up falling to the floor. Harper and Dean both looked when he fell and Dean tried his hardest not to laugh at the look on Alec's face. Alec glared at Dean, but that just made him laugh more. Harper couldn't keep the smile off her face as she helped Alec up and back on the bed.

Dean helped Alec get his scrub top off and he looked at Alec in sympathy. There was gauze taped to his side, but blood was seeping through from the fight in the hospital. He was covered in bruises; some were older from previous hunts, but the darker ones were from the explosion. Dean had missed them before when Alec had changed, but now he knew they really needed a break.

"I don't want to complain, but I really want to sleep…" Alec said quietly.

"Just give me a second, you tore some stiches," Dean said as he pulled out the broken stiches.

"You can fix them while I sleep," Alec said with a small smirk.

Dean rolled his eyes, "It'll only take a minute…"

Dean went as fast as he could while still keeping the stiches neat and without causing Alec too much pain. Harper kept Alec company until Dean was completely done and then he looked up with drowsy eyes.

"Alright, now you can sleep," Dean said quietly.

"Good," Alec breathed out. He turned and stretched out across the bed; he still had his scrub pants on, but Dean thought they were pretty comfortable so he didn't mention it. "No wake up checks. I won't wake up so don't bother…" Alec mumbled. Alec turned to try and get comfortable, but it didn't work. He tried a few more times before he finally gave up and said, "My head hurts too much to sleep…"

Harper gave him a small smile and then climbed on to the bed. "Time for my super-secret medicine." She sat next to him and leaned against the headboard and then very gently ran her fingers through his hair. She kept her motions slow and soothing and Alec actually snuggled down deeper into the pillow.

"Ohhh, this feels awesome…" Alec mumbled.

"That's your super-secret medicine?" Dean asked with a smile.

"Shut up Dean…I don't want it to stop…" Alec mumbled again. He even leaned in to Harper's touch and he looked just like a cat.

"Go to sleep Alec," Dean said affectionately.

"Yes sir," Alec said with a smile. He was out a moment later, but Harper stayed where she was, still running her fingers through his hair.

"I can't believe that worked," Dean whispered.

Harper smirked, "It works on you every time…"

Dean looked affronted, "It does not!"

"I can prove it," Harper said with a smile and a spark in her eyes.

"Oh really?" Dean asked in a challenge. She nodded and he started looking around the room for some paper and something to write with. He finally found a notepad with a pen next to it and wrote a quick note for Alec in case he woke up. "Is he really asleep?" Dean asked once he was done with the note and set it on the nightstand next to Alec.

"I think so," Harper replied. She slowed her hand until it was just resting in Alec's hair. She waited just in case Alec woke up, but he stayed asleep and she finally removed her hand. She carefully got off the bed so she wouldn't wake him up and then looked up at Dean. "What's on the note?"

"Just that we'll be in another room if he needs us," Dean replied. He grabbed her hand and quietly led her out of the room.

Sam and Tera were sitting on the sofa together talking when Dean and Harper left Alec's room. He suddenly remembered that they were actually on a hunt even though this place felt like vacation. They needed to make this place demon-proof before they did anything else.

"Sam, we need to salt the place," Dean said quietly.

"I forgot about that…" Sam said and then he turned to Tera, "This is going to sound crazy-"

"I don't think anything you say anymore will sound crazy," Tera muttered.

Sam smiled and then said, "We have to salt the doors and windows; it keeps demons out."

"Salt?" Tera said with disbelief.

"Yeah…so is it cool if we put a line of salt on all the doors and windows?" Sam asked.

"Umm…yeah…do what you gotta do…" Tera said with uncertainty.

Sam, Dean, and Harper quickly set to work on salting every door and window in the cabin. It didn't take them long to cover the whole cabin and then Sam went back to the sofa to sit next to Tera.

"We're going to bed; if Alec needs something and you're still up, can you take care of him?" Dean asked as he grabbed Harper's hand again.

"Yeah, of course," Sam replied.

Dean and harper headed for the room next to Alec's, but Dean stopped at Alec's room along the way. He peeked in to make sure Alec was still sleeping soundly and was relieved to hear his steady breathing. He quickly grabbed his and Harper's bags and then walked back out, closing the door behind him.

"Do you think he's going to be ok?" Harper whispered as they walked in the next room over.

Dean dropped their bags on the floor and closed the door and then turned to face Harper. "He bounces back fast; I think he'll be ok." He took both of Harper's hands in his and pulled her closer. She looked up and met his eyes and he felt like he could get lost staring into their blue depths. "Close your eyes," Dean whispered with a smile.

Harper looked at him in confusion, but then closed her eyes. Dean leaned in, waiting for just a breath, and then lightly kissed Harper's nose. She scrunched her nose and smiled, "You missed."

Dean frowned, "No I didn't."

Harper took off Dean's scrub cap and tossed it behind her. Then she put her hand in his hair and pulled him down until their lips met. Their kiss was deep, filled with everything they hadn't said and all the time they'd spent apart. Dean broke off the kiss only to trail a line of small kisses down Harper's neck to her collarbone and then back up to her lips. She still had her scrub cap on so Dean slowly pulled it off and released her long brown hair.

Dean leaned back just a little so he could look at Harper. "Did I mention how good you look in scrubs?" Dean asked with a smile.

"Not for a while…" Harper teased.

"I'll need to change that then," Dean said quietly as their lips met again.

Dean pulled Harper to the bed, but he stumbled a little and fell back onto the mattress and he pulled Harper with him. She landed on top of him and laughed. He held her to him and then rolled so she was the one lying on the bed. He propped himself up on his elbows and then playfully kissed her nose again.

"I've missed you," Dean whispered.

"I've missed you too," Harper said with a smile.

Afterward, they lay together. Dean held Harper close to his side and she rested her head on his shoulder and chest. Dean was absentmindedly playing with her hair with one hand and holding her hand with his other. He couldn't ignore how much he had missed her; if he had a normal life he would settle down with her and have a family, but that wasn't his life. He knew she would be fine with him continuing to hunt, but she'd want to stay in one place eventually and he hated to see her in danger. Besides, he had to look out for Sam and Alec, they needed him and he couldn't let them hunt all these demons without him.

"You think too much," Harper suddenly said and Dean chuckled. "What are you thinking about?"

"Just how life could be different," Dean admitted. He didn't know why, but he was always honest with Harper. "If I would have left Sam at Stanford, Jess would still be alive and they'd probably be getting married. My Dad would probably still be alive. And maybe we would be together…"

It was quiet for a moment and then Harper finally said, "Those are a lot of big if's and they don't really solve much…If you left Sam at school, yeah Jess might be alive, but you two still wouldn't be talking. And your Dad? He still could've gotten hurt on a hunt and besides that, he left you alone to hunt by yourself. Sure, we might be together, but Dean, we could still be together," Harper said with a smile and then she said quietly, "And what about Alec?"

Dean looked at her in confusion, "What do you mean?"

"You and Sam went and got him right? What was his situation before you two came along?"

"He was running from the cops; had a few bullets in him too…" Dean chuckled a little at the memory, "We actually hit him with our car."

"Seriously?" Harper looked up with a smile.

"Yeah, he had a busted knee and he still managed to steal Sam's gun," Dean replied with his smile still in place.

"He wouldn't be here without you," Harper said in a sleepy voice.

Dean just nodded. He didn't know if Alec really had a better life or not. He seemed to like staying with them, but who knows where he could have been now. But Harper was right, those were a lot of big if's, and even if he could change things he wouldn't.

He kissed the top of Harper's head as she drifted off to sleep. Dean stayed awake for a little while longer thinking about what Harper had said. She was right, if he and Sam hadn't come along who knew where Alec would be. He, Sam, and Alec were a family and he wouldn't let anything tear them apart.

* * *

More soon...


	9. Chapter 9

Alec was still sore when he woke up, but his headache was down to a dull throb. He had actually slept through the night and he was surprised that it was early afternoon by the time he woke up. He usually only slept for a few hours a night and his sleep was usually interrupted by bad memories turned even worse nightmares.

He was pretty comfortable, but his stomach had started to growl. He hadn't had any real food in a while and even cereal was starting to sound good. Cereal wasn't his favorite thing to eat, but Sam and Dean usually had a box lying around since it was cheap and easy to make. He'd never had cereal until he was out of Manticore and the only real problem with it was that it didn't keep him full for very long. And he had to eat about half the box to get somewhat full in the first place.

His stomach won out though and he finally decided to get up. He stretched to try and work out his stiff muscles and the movement made him smile; Dean and Sam always teased him that he looked like a cat when he stretched.

He was still wearing his scrub pants, but he found that they were surprisingly comfortable so he didn't bother changing. He didn't look for a shirt either since the cabin was silent and he didn't think anyone else was up and eating was more important at this point.

Alec hadn't really paid much attention to how the cabin looked since he was half asleep when they'd walked in, but as far as he was concerned it was pretty nice. He was used to shady motels and abandoned houses, honestly anything was better than Terminal City, but this place was like the Hilton. He was just in the bedroom and there was a giant TV on the wall. If they weren't on a hunt, he probably wouldn't even leave this room.

Some of the places they stayed had TV's, but they were usually too busy to watch it. If there was one thing Alec missed about Seattle, it would be all the TV he got to watch. He missed his friends too, but TV really was a wonderful thing.

He managed to tear his eyes away from the TV and walk out of the room. He was mildly surprised to see that Sam and Tera were both asleep on the sofa; they were actually spooning and he wanted to remember that for later so he could tease Sam about it. He rolled his eyes and then made his way to the kitchen.

The cabinets were actually stocked with food, but he didn't want to make a lot of noise so he just grabbed the first box of cereal that he saw. It was something called Coco Puffs, which of course he'd never had but looked promising with all the chocolate. It was definitely something Dean might eat and that Sam would never buy, so of course he wanted to try it.

He was completely silent as he looked for a bowl and spoon and the only noise he made was when he poured his cereal. He glanced up to make sure Sam and Tera were still asleep and then he grabbed his milky cereal and headed for what looked like a back door. There was a huge wooden deck with lounge chairs scattered around and Alec immediately sat down and made himself comfortable. It felt really nice outside and the view was amazing with the woods and the mountains and even the cereal wasn't half bad.

After he finished his first bowl of cereal he was still hungry so he went back inside and just grabbed the entire box and gallon of milk and then went back outside.

"Now this is what I'm talkin' about," Alec muttered with a smile as he poured his second bowl of cereal.

He was on his fifth bowl when the back door opened and Tera walked out. She was still wearing her psych ward outfit from yesterday but it was a little wrinkled from sleep. Alec was a little surprised to see her considering he maybe said two sentences to her total yesterday. Not only that, but she seemed to be glued to Sam's side since he was the one going out of his way to talk to her.

"Sorry I helped myself," Alec finally mumbled and he gestured to the cereal so she knew what he was talking about.

Tera shrugged back, "Its fine…it was Jacob's favorite anyway…I never really liked the stuff…"

Alec had no idea what to say. He wasn't very good at comforting people, especially people he barely knew. He cleared his throat and then said, "Sorry…about your friend and all…"

Tera looked away and then changed the subject, "So, why are you sitting out here?"

"The fresh air," Alec answered easily, "And the sunshine."

If Sam or Dean had asked him that he probably would have told them how he didn't think he'd like being free from Manticore. That he'd been comfortable with what he knew and he hadn't wanted things to change. But now he would fight to stay free. The fresh air was the big one; it felt like he could finally breathe, like he'd been holding his breath until Max had freed them all.

"Look, I'm trying really hard not to freak out about everything…but the one thing I keep getting stuck on is the fact that you're a…" Tera looked away from him and whispered, "A transgenic…"

Alec's eyebrows rose; this was not the conversation he thought they were going to have. "Cat's outta the bag now," Alec replied with a smirk.

Tera wasn't amused, but then again she really didn't know that he had some cat DNA so the joke was wasted.

"I've seen the news; you've practically destroyed Seattle," Tera stated with a hint of accusation in her voice.

Alec clenched his jaw and forced himself to stay calm and instead joked, "Well, I didn't do it by myself; there are quite a few of us actually…"

"I didn't mean you personally," Tera tried to backtrack, "I just meant your kind."

"My kind?" Alec asked sarcastically.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to offend you, but it's hard to ignore what's on the news. You seem like a nice enough guy, but you're still one of them and I have no idea what they are. You could be dangerous for all I know and now that I've had some time to think, I can't believe I helped break you out of the hospital. I shouldn't even let you stay here…" She was rambling and she still refused to look at him, "And for God's sake, can you please put on a shirt! I can't concentrate with all of this going on," Tera gestured to his chest and then sat back, waiting for him to respond.

Anyone who'd seen the news about them thought they were dangerous. The news wasn't helping them at all with their footage of them, even though they were the ones being attacked. It wasn't Tera's fault that she thought that he was dangerous; he'd warned Sam and Dean constantly of that very fact and he couldn't blame her now. He needed to try and explain things to her so she would know how they really were and not how the news portrayed them.

Alec sat forward and put his elbows on his knees, "Look, what the news puts out is only one side of the story. Transgenics aren't monsters; we were created in a lab and then raised as soldiers. All I've known my whole life are orders and missions. Yes I'm dangerous," Alec said, "But I'm not going to hurt you."

Tera thought about what he said. He was surprised that she didn't just run off when she heard him say that he was a transgenic in the car. It must have been the adrenaline that made her overlook that fact until now.

"Can you explain it more? What being a transgenic means?" Tera finally asked.

Alec smiled a little and rubbed the back of his neck where his barcode was, "Sure, I have human DNA and some cat DNA mixed together. A lot in my series have cat DNA, but other series have different animals as part of their mix. Somehow, Manticore got ahold of Dean's DNA and mixed it together with cat to get me. The DNA gives us enhancements that regular humans don't have."

"Like what?" Tera asked curiously.

"Well, I'm stronger than a normal human, I'm faster, and I have heightened senses…those are just some of them, but since Manticore created us, they were in charge. If you didn't do what they said, then you were punished or killed depending on how badly you messed up…"

"What happened to Seattle? Why does it look like it was destroyed only after you all escaped?" Tera asked.

Alec took a deep breath and then said, "It was already a mess before we got there. Everyone was trying to keep it quiet from the rest of the States, but once they found out transgenics existed we became the perfect scapegoat. We were going to try and make a stand, but the cops found us before we could get anything started…"

"I'm sorry; I shouldn't have judged you so harshly. You all just looked so dangerous when you popped up on the news…" Tera said quietly.

"Well we are a bunch of trained assassins," Alec said with a smile. "But we really just want to be left alone. People are just afraid of things that are different from them."

It was quiet after Alec said that and it seemed like Tera was thinking things over. Alec sat back in the chair again and poured himself another bowl of cereal. He hoped that Tera was ok with what he was now that he'd explained some things, but it was hard to tell. She wasn't freaking out so that was a good sign; he would just have to wait and see how she reacted.

He wasn't as surprised when Sam opened the door and stepped outside a few minutes later. He was still in his security guard outfit and Alec had to hide his smile.

"Are you eating all of Tera's food?" Sam asked with a smile.

"She said she didn't really like this kind anyway," Alec replied and he shook the box in Sam's direction.

"Is that chocolate?" Sam asked after a moment with a frown.

Alec slurped the chocolate milk out of the bowl and then said, "Yeah, what are you gonna do about it?"

"Just wait until you're really feeling better, then you better watch your back," Sam teased.

"You don't want to start this game with me," Alec replied with a challenge.

Sam rolled his eyes and sat down on the chair next to Tera. Alec would have teased Sam right then, but he wanted to wait until Tera wasn't around. Instead, he held out his bowl of cereal to Sam and asked, "You want some?"

Sam laughed, "No, I think I'm good…Save some for Dean though, he might want some."

"Might want some of what?" Dean suddenly asked from the doorway. Harper was standing by his side and Dean had his arm across her shoulders and she had hers around his waist. They were the only ones who had changed into normal clothes and they looked ready to go.

"Some of the cereal that Alec found," Sam said back.

"What kind is it?" Dean asked with interest. He walked onto the deck and sat down on Alec's other side and Harper sat down next to him.

"It's called Coco Puffs; it's nice and chocolatey," Alec said with a smile and he held out the box of cereal for Dean to take.

He reached out and grabbed it with an equally big smile, "Man, I haven't had these in forever!" He reached into the box and grabbed a handful and then threw them in his mouth. He reached in and to grab another handful and frowned, "How many bowls did you already eat?"

"Six I think," Alec replied, trying to think back to how many he'd had. At Sam and Dean's exasperated looks he defended, "Hey, I was hungry! You guys were all asleep and it was chocolate cereal! You can't blame me for that!"

"You don't even like cereal," Sam said with a smile.

"I would if you bought the chocolate kind…" Alec muttered.

Dean chuckled and then asked Alec, "How ya feelin'?"

Alec shrugged, "Pretty good; headache's down some, but I'm ready to go whenever."

"Well, Tera and I talked about it and she said we can use the cabin as long as we need. We don't have any real leads yet on the demons so…" Sam said slowly as he glanced back and forth between Dean and Tera.

"So you think we should stay here," Dean finished.

"Makes sense," Alec said, "What's the plan to smoke out the demons?"

"Me and Harper are going to town to see if anyone's noticed anything strange and you three are going to stay here and do research," Dean replied.

"Why do I have to stay and do research!" Alec immediately complained.

"You're still resting," Dean said and Alec could tell there was no room for arguing this time.

"Don't you think Tera should go to town? She knows the area and she knows the people," Sam said.

Dean groaned and then whined, "Sam, I don't want to stay here." And then he muttered, "I hate research…"

"Tough," Sam said with a smile, "Tera and I are going to town and you three are staying here."

"Fine," Dean grumbled.

It was quiet for a moment until Alec finally broke the silence, "So, when are we eating breakfast?" Sam laughed and Dean threw a handful of cereal at him.

* * *

_Thought I'd give the boys a little r&amp;r this time. Next chapter, the real fun begins! ;)_

_(Also, I changed Dark Angel a little with the whole Seattle bit to where that was really the only place to be affected by the pulse and now people are blaming the transgenics, just a little heads up)_

_More soon..._


	10. Chapter 10

Sam turned off the Impala and looked at the list that he and Tera had written up. They had been in town for the majority of the day and they had almost 20 names on the list. It was all the people that were either missing or that had started to act strange in the last few weeks. He knew it wasn't a full list, but he was still surprised by the number of people on it.

"C'mon, we have to show the others…" Sam stated as he started to get out of the car.

Tera quickly followed his lead and asked, "What does all that mean? Are all those people possessed?"

"I don't know," Sam admitted quietly. "I hope not. If they are, we have a big problem…"

His long legs made it so he reached the door in just a few seconds and Tera jogged to keep up. He opened the door to find the TV on, but he didn't immediately see the others. He walked into the room and saw that Alec was in one of the recliners sleeping and Dean and Harper were on the sofa. Dean's head was in Harper's lap and one of Harper's hands was resting on his chest. He had his eyes closed as Harper ran her fingers through his hair.

Harper looked away from the TV when Sam and Tera walked into the room and her eyebrows rose in question.

"What happened to research?" Sam whispered.

"We finished a few hours ago," Harper whispered back and held up a crumpled piece of paper.

Sam reached out and took the paper and scanned it quickly. They had the same names on their paper as theirs, but they had an even longer list.

"Any leads on where they are?" Sam asked as he sat down on the smaller sofa and Tera sat next to him.

Harper shook her head, "There aren't many places in town where that many people could be hiding…"

"So Bobby was right…we might be dealing with a demon army here…" Sam muttered after a moment.

"How are we supposed to take down a demon army?" Harper asked incredulously.

"We'll have to think of something," Sam said with determination. He looked over at Alec and Dean and then asked, "How long have they been asleep?"

Harper smiled, "Pretty much since we finished up research."

Sam chuckled and nodded, "Then they'll probably be hungry when they wake up." Sam stood and made his way to the kitchen and then asked Tera, "Do you have spaghetti?"

"Yep, do you want some help?" Tera asked.

"Nah, I got it," Sam replied as he found a pot and filled it with water.

"Don't let him cook," Dean suddenly mumbled.

Sam rolled his eyes, "It's just spaghetti!"

He really did know how to cook even though Dean claimed that he ruined most of what he cooked. Before he went to college that was true, Dean had always cooked when their Dad was gone and even sometimes when their Dad was there. Sam never had to know and the few times he tried the food was ruined. It wasn't until he met Jess that he actually learned some things about cooking.

It didn't take him long to boil the noodles or heat up the sauce and a little after he started the cabin started smelling great. He made a lot because he knew that all three of them would eat a ton and he wanted there to be enough for Harper and Tera.

"What smells so good?" Alec mumbled, he had half his face pressed into the cushion of the chair and one arm hanging over the side. He still had his eyes closed when Sam looked over, but he knew it had been Alec who spoke.

"I'm making spaghetti," Sam replied with a smile in Alec's direction.

"I thought Dean said you couldn't cook…" Alec muttered after a minute.

"That's because he didn't know how," Dean finally said as he sat up. His hair was all fluffy from Harper messing with it and Sam had to look away to hide his smile.

"I learned," Sam said as he drained the pasta.

"So you've been making me and Alec cook all the time even though you knew how…" Dean said as he slowly stood up and made his way into the kitchen.

"You banned me from cooking! And you two hardly ever cook! We always go out to eat!" Sam immediately argued.

"You've ruined Mac and Cheese for me! There's no way I was going to let you in another kitchen after that!" Dean shot back.

"That wasn't my fault!"

"OK! Let's just move on and eat some dinner," Harper suddenly cut in. Sam and Dean froze to look at her, but it did stop their argument. She shot them a quick look of reprimand and then went over and crouched down next to Alec's chair.

Sam looked away so he could finish up dinner while Harper woke Alec up. Tera was setting up a table with plates and silverware and Dean came over a minute later to fill some cups with water.

Dean was laughing to himself when Sam walked over to the sink. "What?"

"We're actually doing this," Dean chuckled, "We're having a normal sit down dinner…we've never done that."

Sam smiled a little, "There's a first time for everything." He didn't mention that he did sit down and do normal dinners a lot in college. He and his friends would get together to eat and when he moved in with Jess they had dinner parties a lot. But he didn't want to remind Dean of the time he was in college.

Harper took the noodles from him and carried them to the table while he took the sauce over. Alec slowly walked over to the table and looked at them all like they were insane.

"What are we doing?"

"Eating. Now sit down so we can start to figure out where these demons are hiding," Dean replied with a smile.

Sam was a little worried that no one would like the spaghetti, but Dean and Alec ended up devouring it. All five of them finished off the spaghetti in record time and they sat back with full stomachs. They pushed their dishes to the side and Sam went to grab his laptop.

He pulled up a map of the town and Dean scooted his chair over so he could see. Harper and Alec grabbed up the dishes and headed to the sink to wash them.

"We're looking for a place where, according to your list, over thirty people are hiding…" Sam muttered as he and Dean scanned the map. Tear stood up to peek over his shoulder, but she didn't say anything.

"Warehouse?" Dean asked and he pointed to a few that might work. Sam quickly looked them up only to find that they were all occupied with other things.

"Mmmm, no, not any of those…" Sam muttered.

"What about somewhere in the mountains?" Dean asked after a moment.

"Possible…Demons don't really care if they're inside or not…" Sam replied.

Sam glanced up as Alec suddenly walked into his line of sight. He was headed for the front door and he crouched down to look at something. Harper was still at the sink drying the dishes that Alec had already finished washing.

Tera spoke though before he could ask Alec what he was doing. "There are a lot of cabins up here…if I were them I would make all the demons stay up here…"

Dean looked up at Tera, but Sam's focus drifted back to Alec.

"Really? That's what you would do…" Dean said, not even bothering to hide his suspicion.

"Hypothetically," Tera snapped back.

"Hey guys…" Alec muttered quietly, but Sam couldn't see what Alec was looking at and Dean didn't hear him.

"You know, we really don't have any idea who you are," Dean accused Tera.

"I don't know what you're accusing me of, but all I've done is help you!" Tera yelled.

"You crashed into Harper! Or did you forget that little fact?" Dean asked sarcastically.

"Guys!" Alec called out louder and he finally got more than just Sam's attention.

"What?" Sam asked in the silence.

"Something broke the salt line…" Alec replied. Sam and Dean were immediately on their feet and next to Alec. "What do you think?" Alec asked as he looked back and forth between Sam and Dean.

A glass shattered before anyone could say anything else and all three of them looked up. Tera was still standing where they'd left her, but the salt shaker was shattered on the ground at her feet. "Oops," Tera said with a smile, but as they watched she purposefully knocked off the pepper shaker from the table.

"Christo," Dean muttered and Tera hissed and her eyes flicked to black. "Dammit Sam! You always fall for the evil chicks!"

* * *

_More soon..._


	11. Chapter 11

Sam shot him a bitch face and Alec sat back with his arms resting on his knees and muttered, "You've gotta be joking…"

Dean wasn't all that surprised; he'd been suspicious of Tera from the start and it made sense that she was a demon. If they could use her to find the others that would be great, but he doubted it was going to work out like that.

Harper was still by the sink and she caught Dean's eyes to try and see what he wanted her to do. She was the closest one to Tera and he guessed that she probably had some Holy Water on her. Dean barely held up one finger to tell her to wait for his move and she barely nodded back.

"Are you all surprised?" Tera asked with a smile. "Cause I thought I was pulling it off!"

"So you've been a demon this whole time?" Sam suddenly asked.

"Yep," She popped the p and then continued, "I heard you all were coming to town and so I set up this little trap and the unbelievable part was the fact that you all fell for it," Tera replied in amazement.

"So why did you help us out of the hospital?" Dean asked after a moment. He was trying to stall so he could come up with a plan.

"I've heard a lot about you Winchesters while I was in Hell and I gotta say, you all surprised me. For one, no one knew Alec even existed, two, everyone down there thinks you all are badass, and three, well…I don't actually remember what three was. Anyway, I wanted to see what all the hype was about. Who knew you guys just made it up as you went? But it was fun hanging with you!" Tera said and then she looked at Sam and winked, "Especially you Sam. But I'm a little underwhelmed…don't worry though, I have a few more chances for you boys to prove yourselves."

"So are you the head bitch or just one of the tiny minions?" Dean asked with a smirk.

"Oh Dean, is this where you expect me to reveal my evil plan?" Tera asked with a pitying smile.

Dean didn't answer; he was really just hoping she would keep talking since he still hadn't come up with anything.

"Well, you're right. I want someone to know how much of a genius I am, and since I don't think you brainiacs can beat me, I will tell you. I have my whole demon army here in the mountains and I have you boys to thank for it. You let all these demons out and since Sammy didn't step up to take control someone had to do it. I was the one who brought everyone together and I'm the one who will destroy you."

"And how do you expect to get out of here to control your army?" Alec asked. "You're outnumbered four to one…"

"I'm not too concerned about that…" Tera said confidently.

"Really, why's that?" Dean asked as he reached behind him to tap Alec's knee and then he leaned a little so he barely hit Sam's shoulder. He wanted to make sure they were both ready for when he decided they should attack.

"Because I have a plan to get out of here. See, unlike you, I plan ahead," Tera smugly answered.

"Go!" Dean shouted. He jumped up and charged at Tera.

Alec beat him to her though; he jumped over the table and tossed a handful of salt in her face. Dean slid into her legs and he rolled out of the way when she started to fall over. She screamed in frustration, but she jumped up a second later. She had to put her arms up to protect herself once dishes started flying at her. Harper was at the sink and was hurling anything she could get her hands on at Tera.

"Sam!" Harper suddenly yelled. Sam looked up and she tossed a jug of Holy Water at him.

He caught it easily then splashed some onto Tera, but everyone froze when nothing happened.

Tera had cuts on her face from the dishes thrown at her and she was dripping with water, but she still laughed, "Holy water can't help you now! I'm one of the higher ups; salt, holy water, those don't bother me!"

Alec looked at Dean with wide eyes, but he didn't know how to solve this. He only knew one way to kill a demon like this and that was the Colt. They'd used the last of the bullets for the Colt on the Yellow-Eyed Demon and now the gun was useless. He didn't know any other way except exorcising it, but he doubted it would work on Tera.

"I know that look," Tera suddenly said with a wicked smile, "You don't know how to kill me. You've lost!"

"We don't give up that easy," Dean shot back. He'd never give up, as long as he was still breathing there would be a fight left in him.

"I know Dean, that's what I like about you Winchesters," Tera said sweetly. "You never give up. Makes it that much more fun to try and kill you."

"If you really wanted to kill us, you would have done it already," Sam challenged.

"Sam," Tera replied, looking at him, "I know you guys are stalling, but did you ever think maybe I was stalling too?"

Sam and Dean shared a look. He knew his brother was thinking the same thing he was; they were screwed. They didn't have any way out of this and they all knew it.

"What are you stalling for?" Alec asked quietly when no one else asked what they were all thinking.

"I'm so glad you asked, Alec," Tera said, turning around to face him, "See, I like Sam the most, but you were the one I was most interested in. Everyone downstairs said that there was just Sam and Dean, not Sam, Dean, and Alec. So I was curious; who you were, what you were doing with Sam and Dean, why you looked exactly like Dean…Tera, well meatsuit Tera, knew about transgenics from the news, but she didn't know what they were. So of course I had to find out what was going on. And honestly, I'm surprised at how easy it was to get the information out of you. I thought I was going to have to go all demon-dark side on you, but all I did was ask and you spilled your guts!"

Alec just glared back at her with his jaw clenched, but Dean was ready to rip her apart. She was going after Alec and they had no way to take her out. Alec didn't tell many people about himself and now she was using it against him. It was going to take Sam and Dean a long time to get him back to where he was. He'd finally opened up to someone outside of their little family and look at where it'd gotten him.

"You're still stalling," Sam pointed out shortly.

"Sorry Sam," Tera said with a smile, "I'm stalling because my second in command is on the way, so if you guys are going to do something you better do it fast. That last attempt was pretty pathetic."

Sam was the first one to make a move this time; he ran at Tera and tackled her to the ground.

"I'm not really in the mood to play rough right now Sam," Tera grunted out.

"That's too bad," Sam said through his teeth. He sat up and pulled back to punch, but Tera threw out her hand and Sam was thrown back onto the table. He hit it the table and slid until he fell off on the other side. Tera jumped up and smiled at Dean and Alec to see who was going to attack next.

Alec blurred over to her and he hit her twice before she pushed him all the way across the room where he crashed into the flat screen TV. He slowly picked himself up and shook his head to clear it. He was holding his right arm where there was blood dripping down.

Dean ran up to Tera and he dropped and rolled when she threw her hand out. He jumped up, but before he could hit her she beat him to it. His head snapped to the side at the force of her punch and he had to stagger back to catch his balance. He waited for her to do the demon force thing, but he was surprised when it didn't happen.

Harper had run over and jumped on Tera's back. She had Tera in a choke hold that had distracted Tera long enough for Dean to catch himself. Tera walked back until she slammed Harper against the wall. Harper's breath whooshed out and her hold loosened. Tera slammed back again and Harper let go of her completely and slid down to the floor.

Sam was back up and he and Dean ran forward. Sam went high and hit Tera across the face while Dean went low and punched her in the side. She elbowed Dean in the chest and then grabbed Sam's shoulders and then kneed him in the gut.

Alec and Harper were closing in to help when Tera threw out her arms and they all went flying back. Tera stretched, "That was pretty good, color me impressed…but you still gotta do better than that."

They were all breathing hard, but Dean knew they needed to either kill her or run. If her second in command was on its way, then they were in serious trouble. Sam looked over at him and Dean knew he thought they should run to fight another time. Leave and come back with a plan to beat Tera and her entire demon army.

Tera suddenly looked to the door and said, "Finally, it took you long enough…"

A cloud of black smoke came barreling into the room. Dean was very glad that he and Sam got the anti-possession tattoos after the last time Sam had been possessed. As soon as he thought that his eyes immediately traveled to Alec.

Alec was only slightly conscious. He'd been recovering, but he wasn't all the way back and he had hit the TV which hadn't helped anything. Dean could only watch in horror as the black smoke circled the room and then jammed itself down Alec's throat.

Alec lay there for a moment before he stood up and stretched. He still had blood running down his arm, but he was no longer concerned about it. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, "Now this is what I'm talking about." He clenched and then unclenched his fists as if testing the power of his muscles. He finally opened his eyes and looked right at Dean. His eyes were bright green for just a second before they flicked to black and Alec smiled.

"Shit…" Dean breathed out.

* * *

_So this could be it for a while; I'm going to New York to get my little brother from college. I'm going to try and write another chapter tomorrow, but no promises. I should be back June 1st so I'm sorry if I have to leave you all on this cliffhanger!_


	12. Chapter 12

_I'm back early! So here's the next chapter! I hope you all like it!_

* * *

"Shit," Dean said exactly what Sam had been thinking. Alec's eyes were black and now they were really screwed.

Sam and Dean had seen firsthand how advanced Alec's fighting skills were. When he was at 100% he could take on a few demons all by himself; even injured he could probably take on at least one or two small demons. Now they were up against a juiced up Alec; they didn't want to hurt him, but he wouldn't care what he did to them. The demon was controlling him now and it meant he was twice as strong without any morals.

"Now this is a worthy meatsuit…" Alec muttered with a smile.

"I told you it would be worth the wait," Tera replied. She sounded a little impatient, but Sam didn't know what she was planning.

"I'm so sorry I doubted you," Alec said sarcastically with a roll of his eyes. Sam almost smiled before he remembered that this was demon Alec talking and not his and Dean's Alec.

Tera's eyes turned deadly as she faced Alec and hissed, "You better watch it, I'm the only reason you're here."

"And I'm the only reason you're still in charge," Alec hissed back. "I've kept them in line while you're over here playing house with the Winchesters!"

Tera threw out both hands towards Alec with enough force to heave him through the wall into one of the bedrooms. Sam flinched a little as Alec crashed through the wall; even though it was good news that the two demons were fighting each other instead of them, it was still Alec getting his ass kicked.

Alec appeared out of the hole he'd just made and he had murder in his eyes. He backhanded the air and Tera's head snapped to the side.

"Dude, this is like watching Star Wars in real life," Dean whispered with a small smile. His face fell at the look Sam shot him and then shook his head, "Shut up." Harper crawled over to them a second later and had to duck closer when part of the table crumbled under Alec's weight. He jumped up again and forced the chandelier down on Tera's head.

"Shouldn't we be running now?" Harper asked as she threw her arm up to protect her face.

Dean had to turn his head to avoid the shards of glass but replied, "We have to get Alec back."

They all three had to drop to the ground as Alec flew over their heads and then rolled across the floor.

"If we go now, we can come back with a plan to get him back without dying," Sam barely lifted his head up to say.

Dean looked around and then finally nodded, "Alright, let's go." He looked around again and then said, "Go to the back door so we can avoid most of…this." He waved around at all the destruction that Tera and Alec had already caused and Sam and Harper nodded.

They started to crawl their way over to the back door; Dean was in the lead and then it was Harper and then Sam. It was slow since Tera and Alec were on to throwing things across the room at each other. They had to keep stopping as items flew at them.

"Dean!" Sam called out as a vase soared in his direction, but he said it too late. Dean was hit on the side of his head and the vase shattered as soon as it made contact and he collapsed.

Harper was at his brother before he could get there and she immediately started checking his head. Sam was there a moment later and he was glad to see that Dean was still conscious and was trying to bat Harper's hands away.

"I'm fine," Dean grumbled. "C'mon, we need to go."

He had a few cuts up by his temple from where the glass had cut him, but they weren't bleeding too badly. Right now they couldn't do anything about it anyway.

They were almost to the door when Sam looked back to see Tera practically force-choking Alec, and Sam cursed Dean for making him think of Darth Vader in that moment. She finally flung him to the ground and Sam breathed out a sigh of relief. Alec was breathing hard, but he seemed to have given in to Tera's leadership. He slowly got to his feet, but he didn't try to attack her again; they just faced each other to see who would make the next move.

Sam looked back over at the door where Dean had risen up to his knees to open the door. He cursed when he pushed against the door and it didn't budge.

"Really?" Tera suddenly asked, making them all look her way. "You thought I was just going to let you all leave? That doesn't really sound like me…"

She grabbed at the air and then pulled back suddenly and Sam felt himself get lifted up and then he was flying. He landed hard all the way across the room, almost to the front door, but Dean and Harper landed almost on top of him. They got tangled up as they rolled and they were a tangle of limbs once they finally stopped.

Dean groaned as he untangled himself. He pushed Sam's legs off of his chest and sat up to shoot a glare at him. "You're all legs," Dean grumbled in annoyance

"Dean we have bigger problems right now…" Sam muttered back, rubbing his shoulder where he'd landed on it. They all three stayed sitting on the floor; they weren't really up for another fight especially now that Alec wasn't with them.

Tera slowly made her way over to them, "I just love how you guys never give up…I am curious on how you're going to stop me…" She looked back over at Alec and said, "Alec…that's going to take some getting used to…" She muttered in an afterthought, "I was just getting used to Jacob and now I have to call you by an entirely different name."

Alec scowled at her and then growled, "Get on with it!"

Tera glared back but she didn't start the fight back up, instead she said, "So grumpy…anyway, get over here."

Alec's jaw clenched, but he didn't say anything as he started to walk forward. He stumbled a little and Sam couldn't help the spike of concern that flooded through him. Alec stumbled again and actually had to grab the back of a chair to stay upright. Sam looked at Dean to see the same concern covering his face; who knew how badly Alec would be injured by the time they got him back.

Tera looked over at him with impatience and demon Alec actually looked like he was in pain. "The little twerp is fighting me…" Alec struggled to say.

"You're joking right?" Tera asked in amusement. Alec glared back at her and she continued, "First you complain that I didn't find you a strong enough meatsuit, then I find you the strongest one possible and it turns out he's too strong for you." Tera threw her head back in laughter.

Alec doubled over in pain with his arm wrapped around his middle. Tera suddenly stopped laughing, "Can you control him or not? Cause we need to get on with this."

Alec shook his head to clear it and mumbled, "Yeah…I got him…" He stood up straight again and walked towards them, but his steps were still slow and a little unsteady.

Tera huffed out a breath and turned to walk around the room, "Watch them," she commanded Alec as she wandered back to the kitchen. Alec leaned against the wall with his arms crossed while she got a wine glass out of the cabinet and then poured some red wine for herself. She went to the table and sat down with her legs crossed, sipping her wine.

"This is quite the place…" Tera said after a moment. "The real Tera's parents actually do own this cabin…"

"So?" Dean asked impatiently.

"I'm trying to make conversation here Dean," Tera snapped.

"Kill me," Dean said with a roll of his eyes and he smirked at Sam.

Sam glared back, but Tera said, "All in due time. Do you know how hard it's been getting all these lowlife demons together? They do whatever they want! They don't see the bigger picture."

"And what's that?" Sam asked with disgust. This demon had taken over some girl's life and the lives of dozens of other people, not to mention the fact that they might not be able to get the demon out of Alec without killing him.

"World domination, human extinction," Tera replied simply with another sip of wine.

"You know that's never going to work," Dean said with confidence.

Tera leaned forward, "But it already has. I have over 30 demons at my disposal and I have a plan."

"You and 30 demons are going to take over the world," Dean said with a laugh.

"Yes Dean, but you won't be around to see it…" Tera said with a sad smile. She got up and walked to them again. She crouched down in front of Sam, but he leaned away so he was out of her reach. "I'm sorry Sam, but you won't be around either. I would have loved to have you as my second, but you've got that tattoo and all and I can't have you three ruining everything…"

Sam knew this would be it for them; Tera was going to kill them all and take Alec with her. They wouldn't even have a chance to fight back and he could only hope that it would be quick. Maybe Bobby would be able to figure out how to stop this since he and Dean wouldn't be around. Hopefully Bobby can also free Alec from the demon's hold before it was too late.

"I'm sorry Sam," Tera said and then she stood up and headed for the door. Right before she walked out she turned to look at Alec and said, "Kill them."

Alec smiled and pushed off of the wall, "With pleasure…"

* * *

_More soon..._


	13. Chapter 13

"Alec, c'mon man, you gotta fight this," Dean tried to keep Alec from killing them, but he didn't think his words were doing anything. Alec sauntered over to them and Dean wanted to back away at the look in his eyes but he stayed where he was.

"He never stopped fighting…" Alec said after a moment, "…But he's only hurting himself."

"Let him go you son of a bitch!" Dean yelled.

Alec barely flicked his fingers and Dean was suddenly forced back against the wall. His breath whooshed out at the contact and Dean briefly closed his eyes in pain. Sam jumped up when Dean was forced backwards, but Alec just lazily used his other hand to throw him off his feet, but he kept his eyes on Dean.

"Even if I did let him go, how long do you think he'd live? He's using everything he's got to fight for control and he's not even in the best shape after that little spat with Tera…" Alec said; he kept his voice quiet and it almost seemed like he was sorry about what was going on.

Dean didn't know how to change the demon's mind. If he could, he would trade places with Alec in a heartbeat, but even then he'd be condemning him to death. The demon was going to kill them all and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

"You could tell him to stop fighting…" Alec suggested slowly after a minute.

Dean scowled, "Why would we do that?"

"I'd make my life easier," Alec replied with a smirk, but then he became serious again, "If you want him to live then you have to tell him to stop fighting. I'll give you all quick deaths and you can die knowing he might have a chance at living."

Dean looked over at Sam who was hanging on to every word the demon said. Dean knew they didn't have much hope at getting out alive and if Alec could live then at least something good might come out of all of this. Dean could tell Sam was thinking along the same lines as him and then he confirmed it a moment later when he nodded to Dean.

Dean took a deep breath and closed his eyes in defeat, "Alec, I need you to listen to me," This was a lot harder for Dean than he thought it would be. He was a fighter and he knew Sam and Alec were too, and the hardest thing for them was giving in. If he was in Alec's place he knew he'd never stop fighting, but he had to try. "We need you to stop fighting."

Demon Alec closed his eyes for a second and then his face contorted in pain and he forced out, "No…I can't."

Dean's breath caught in his chest; he knew this was really Alec talking to him now, but he had to force him to understand, "Yes Alec. You can't keep going like this."

"But I'll…kill you…" Alec said in agony. "I can't…let that happen…"

"Alec if you don't stop, you'll die," Sam said quietly from his spot on the floor.

"So?" There were tears in Alec's eyes and his broken question had Dean's eyes filling with tears of his own. Alec would never get over the fact that he killed them, and Dean hated putting this on his shoulders, but he couldn't let Alec willingly kill himself.

"Please Alec," Dean breathed out.

Alec closed his eyes and a tear ran down his face until he finally nodded. When he looked up and opened his eyes Dean wasn't surprised to see them completely black signaling the demons return and Alec giving up his control. Dean had technically won that fight, but it didn't feel like a victory.

"That was touching," Demon Alec said sarcastically. "I haven't had a cry like that in decades…Anyway, this is much nicer so thank you... Who wants to go first?" Alec looked at each of them and rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

Dean didn't want to have to watch Sam and Harper die, but he couldn't make them take on that place either. He thought fast so he could try and stall their deaths, "You and Tera don't really get along do you?"

Alec huffed out an impatient sigh, "You know, usually I hate it when people stall, but you wouldn't believe how awful this whole plan has been."

Sam caught on to what he was doing and immediately asked, "Do you think you should be in charge?"

Alec shot a look at Sam and answered, "Of course not! I was having a great time before I became second in command in this world domination. Honestly, it sounds better in theory than it actually is. But the worst part was when she decided she wanted to meet the Winchesters. I was all for it at first; all I had to do was be in charge of the demons while she carried out this elaborate plan."

"What changed your mind?" Dean asked.

"Well for one, I was in the worst meatsuit imaginable, but I had a promise of a better one so that kept me motivated. You all have never been around a lot of demons before, but there's a reason there hasn't been a demon army before now…" Alec paused for a dramatic effect and then said, "They're all a bunch of morons! It reminded me why I've been alone ever since I clawed my way out of hell…"

"So why'd you sign up with Tera?" Sm asked after a moment.

Alec looked at Sam like it was obvious, "World domination."

"You know Tera's plan isn't going to work right?" Dean was trying to get demon Alec to just give up on following Tera altogether, but he didn't know if it was working.

Alec shrugged, "At this point it doesn't even matter." Alec stopped for a second as if he was thinking, but then he snapped out of it and said, "This has been a great talk, wish we could do it again sometime, but I've got some things to get to and you aren't part of the plan."

* * *

Dean was in pain when he finally came around; he was actually happy to feel the pain since that meant he was still alive. Why was he still alive? Demon Alec was supposed to kill him but here he was…

"Dean!" Sam's worried voice called out to him, but Dean could hear the pain in his little brother's voice. But Sam was alive and that's what mattered. They would be able to figure this all out; they would find a way to save Alec and stop Tera.

Sam's hand suddenly landed on his chest, "Dean, c'mon man!" Sam's voice was frantic and the hand on his chest shook him just a little. "Dean, I need you to wake up!" Sam's hand fisted in his shirt like he was never going to let go while his other hand cupped the side of Dean's neck.

"Sam," Dean barely breathed out. He tried to open his eyes so he could see how badly Sam was injured, but for now it was enough to hear his voice.

"I'm right here Dean," Sam instantly reassured.

"Is he ok?" Harper asked from somewhere above him. He figured that Sam nodded back to her since he didn't actually hear a reply.

Dean finally managed to force his eyes open a crack and he was rewarded with a view of Sam's face. There was blood running down one side of his face and his jaw was clenched in pain, but Dean couldn't see what else was hurt.

Sam was asking him something while he did his own check over Sam so he didn't really catch what he said. Sam's eyes, if possible, showed even more concern when he didn't respond to whatever it was that he'd asked him.

"You alright?" Sam asked again. Dean nodded and tried to push himself up on his elbows, but Sam's hand on his chest kept him on the ground.

Dean tried his best to glare at Sam, but he just ignored him. He wasn't going to move for a minute anyway so he decided to ask Sam the obvious question, "Why are we still alive?"

Sam looked away from him briefly, probably to share a look with Harper but Dean could only see Sam so he didn't know. "I don't know what happened…" Sam answered quietly. "Alec was just talking to us one minute and then went completely dark side the next…"

Dean couldn't help the small smile at Sam's explanation. "Dark side?" He asked with his eyebrows raised.

Sam chuckled, "Shut up…You're the one who got me stuck on all these Star Wars comparisons."

Dean laughed a little, but then had to close his eyes in pain. Sam's grip instantly tightened on his shirt and put his hand on Sam's wrist to reassure him.

"Dean?" Sam asked in concern.

"I'm alright…" Dean muttered, but he knew he didn't convince Sam at all.

"Dean-" Sam started, but Dean immediately cut him off.

"Sam I'm not going to a hospital." He knew exactly what Sam was thinking, but there was no way he was going back to that hospital they were at earlier or any hospital for that matter. Not until they had Alec back with them and the demon army was stopped.

"Dean…" Sam sighed.

"Stop it Sam! You know I'm not going anywhere but where those demons are," Dean stated and Sam finally looked down in defeat.

He perked up a second later and Dean braced himself for whatever compromise Sam had thought up. "If Harper clears you, and she says you don't have to go to a hospital, then I won't make you," Sam said with a small smile.

"Like you could make me…" Dean grumbled under his breath, but Sam glared at him right after he said it. "Fine. Help me up…" Sam didn't argue with him as he gripped his hand and slowly eased him up. Sam put his other hand on his back to help support him, which was actually helpful since everything hurt. Harper was on his other side with her hand on his shoulder. "You should check Sam first," Dean muttered to her after a moment.

"You're ridiculous," Harper said back before Sam could argue.

"Do you know what happened?" Dean asked Harper as she gently helped Sam lean him against the wall.

"Some…" Harper replied. "I don't know why we're still alive…Alec threw you two around for a while, but it was weird, it was like he was only doing it for show…"

"What do you mean?" Sam asked in confusion.

"It was just half-hearted, I don't know how to explain it, but after he threw you two around he winked at me and then just left…you guys woke up just a little after he left…" Harper said.

"Dammit Alec…" Dean mumbled after she finished.

"You think he made some kind of deal?" Sam asked while Harper looked between them.

"It's the only think that makes sense; demon's don't usually leave people alive," Dean answered. He'd thought that he'd talked Alec out of fighting, but that apparently backfired. Alec did the only thing he could think of to stop the demon and it would probably cost him his life. They needed to hurry up and find him before he did anything else stupid.

"I think you'll live," Harper stated quietly after she finished checking him over. "You have some broken ribs and a ton of bruises, but it's not serious enough for a hospital trip…"

"Good," Dean said back, "Now it's Sam's turn." Sam sighed, but he still didn't argue with Dean.

"You guys do know I'm not actually a doctor right?" Harper asked with a small smile.

"You've got more training than we do," Sam replied with a light chuckle.

Harper rolled her eyes but started checking Sam after just a moment's hesitation. "So what's our plan now?"

"Same as when we started…find the demons and take them down," Dean stated.

* * *

_More soon..._


	14. Chapter 14

Alec casually made his way down the cabin steps with a smirk firmly planted on his face. No, he hadn't killed the Winchesters, but his meatsuit had actually made a very good point. They would come after him and Tera and they would stop the demon army, but just picturing the look on Tera's face was enough to convince him. He'd been a demon for centuries and things had gotten a little boring. If the Winchesters killed him, that would be fine as long as they took Tera out too. That and the annoying twerp had threatened to cut off his arms and legs which would have made things very difficult and he didn't have as much control over his puppet as he would have liked.

"Is it done?" Tera asked impatiently by the Winchester's car.

"Yup, they're all dead as doornails," Alec replied confidently with a smile.

"What took you so long?" Tera asked suspiciously.

"They wanted to beg for poor little meatsuit's life. It was really pretty pathetic, you should be glad you missed it," Alec said with a sideways look at Tera.

Tera still didn't look like she believed him, "You're sure they're dead? I don't want any surprises…"

"Do you want to see for yourself?" Alec challenged. He knew she wouldn't want to see; she had some insane attachment to the tall Winchester with the hair. He really didn't care to learn any of their names since they were hardly any threat to him at all.

Tera scowled back at him, "No. We need to get the troops ready for tonight." Tera turned and started walking without waiting to see if he would follow.

It wasn't far to their hideout; it was really just down the road from the cabin the Winchesters were staying in. It was funny, they were literally hiding right under their noses and they were looking everywhere for them.

Tera was already a ways down the hill when Alec finally decided to start walking. He was debating how long it was going to take them to find the hideout when something in his pocket started going off with some tune he didn't recognize. He pulled the little rectangle out of his pocket and started clicking buttons to try and stop the noise. He was a demon; he didn't even know what this thing was, let alone how to use it.

One of the buttons finally turned the sound off and Alec smiled triumphantly; and to think, he was just about to smash the thing on the ground when he managed to turn the thing off. He almost jumped when a voice started coming through.

"Alec?"

He definitely didn't recognize the voice and it took him a minute to figure out that his meatsuit's name was Alec. _"You're a real dick you know that? You don't even know who you're possessing…"_ Meatsuit Alec's voice came through his head.

"Yes?" Alec asked back. He held the rectangle out by his face and looked at it with curiosity._ "Good Lord! It's a phone!" _Meatsuit shouted.

"You're so very helpful! Forgive me for possessing a hermit for a few decades," Alec replied sarcastically. "Now would you please shut up," Alec hissed.

"Dean's not answering his phone and neither is Sam, what's going on out there?" The voice from the 'phone' asked.

He didn't care about the person on the other line and Tera was probably almost to their camp so Alec just dropped the little rectangle 'phone' to the gravel and walked away.

"I guess I need to get out more," Alec muttered. He finally figured out that the little 'phone' was some kind of communication device that the humans used. _"How do you not know what a phone is?"_ Meatsuit Alec grumbled.

"Shut up," Alec grumbled back with a small smile. He had to admit, this meatsuit was entertaining. Too bad he was probably going to die after a while; he'd miss these sarcastic remarks.

* * *

"Alright, you should be good now…" Harper muttered to Sam as she put on the last butterfly bandage on the cut over his eye.

"Thanks," Sam replied. They were all in pretty good shape considering they were supposed to be dead. "What about you? Are you alright?" Sam asked Harper after a moment.

"Just some bruises, I'll be fine," Harper said with a smile. Her eyes then left his and traveled around the room until they landed on Dean; she was still worried about him and so was Sam. They had both tried to keep him sitting down, but he wouldn't listen to them. He was over at the window now, but he was barely at the edge so he could look out but anyone outside wouldn't be able to see him.

"What are you looking at?" Sam finally asked, but Dean didn't even turn around to face him. Sam forced himself to his feet and made his way over to Dean while Harper quickly followed. Dean waved behind his back and Sam and Harper immediately fell in behind him.

Sam peeked around Dean and finally saw what had caught his brother's attention; Tera and Alec were both outside. Tera started walking away which had to mean that she thought they were all dead. Sam watched Alec to see what he would do, but he just stayed where he was for a few minutes. The demon jumped a little and then pulled Alec's phone out of his pocket. It was obvious that the demon didn't know what the phone was, but it somehow managed to answer it. The conversation was kept short and Alec dropped the phone to the ground and followed Tera after only a few seconds.

"C'mon," Dean said as soon as Alec disappeared over the hill.

They went as quickly and as quietly as they could out the cabin door and down the steps. Dean was the first one to get to the phone and he stooped down to pick it up.

"Hello?" Dean spoke into the phone quietly; Sam knew he was afraid that Alec could still hear them.

"Bobby?" Dean whispered in confusion and Sam wished he could hear both sides of the conversation. Dean must have known that he wanted to hear because he turned the phone a little and Sam put his ear next to it. Harper shot them a quick look and then silently followed after Alec.

"What's going on? Where's Alec?" Bobby's gruff voice came through in a rush.

"What did he say to you?" Dean asked instead of answering.

"He told someone to shut up and then he dropped the phone and walked off…" Bobby slowly answered.

"We really messed this one up Bobby," Dean admitted after a moment.

"What happened?" Bobby asked patiently.

"We managed to find the leader of the demon army, Alec got possessed and is now her second in command, and we still don't know where exactly the army is hiding. Oh and I forgot about the part where we don't even know how to stop the demon army," Dean replied. He ran his hand down his face and Sam knew he was hurting more than he was letting on.

"Alec's possessed?" Bobby asked in concern. Sam knew the older hunter had a soft spot for Alec ever since he'd watched out for him. He wouldn't be surprised if Bobby was getting in his car right now to come help them out.

"I forgot he didn't have the tattoo," Dean breathed out; Sam didn't miss the guilt that was already creeping into his brother's voice. It wasn't Dean's fault that Alec got possessed, if anything it was his own fault for trusting Tera.

"Dean, this isn't your fault," Sam quickly defended. He couldn't stand that Dean was going to shoulder this as his own failings when in reality if Sam had just listened none of this would have happened. Dean shot him a look that clearly said it wasn't his fault either, but Bobby spoke before either of them could argue about who's fault this was.

"Would you two knock it off and look at the bigger picture here!" Bobby yelled at them through the phone. "Neither of you are to blame for this! Demons do whatever the hell they want so stop blaming yourselves so we can figure out how to stop them!"

Dean ran his hand through his hair, "Alright Bobby…do you have anything in mind?"

Harper walk back over the hill right after Dean said that and Dean looked in her direction as soon as she appeared. Dean looked back over at Sam and then nodded in Harper's direction. Sam didn't really want to leave the conversation with Bobby, but he did want to find out what Harper saw so he decided to walk on over to her.

"Where'd he go?" Sam asked once he was closer.

"It's probably a trap, but he led me right to the army," Harper quietly replied.

"What?! You know where the army is?" Sam didn't wait for her reply; he just grabbed her wrist and brought her back over to Dean.

"Bobby, that's what I'm tellin' ya, we don't know where they are," Dean said in frustration. "Tera said they were somewhere in the mountains, but that could be anywhere!"

"They're only a little ways down the hill," Harper suddenly cut in, causing Dean to look up in surprise.

Dean didn't wait for her to explain; instead he held the phone out and put Bobby on speaker. "Bobby, Harper knows where the army is."

"I followed Alec down the hill where there are five pretty good sized cabins. Alec went in the one at the very back, but I didn't see Tera. They have a guard of two demons in the clearing, but not on the road to the cabins," Harper informed them all.

"How are the cabins set up?" Dean asked.

"They're set up in a semi-circle; Alec's cabin is the furthest with two other cabins on each side," Harper showed how the cabins were set up with her hands as she spoke.

"What's surrounding the cabins?" Bobby asked after a few seconds.

"Just woods. There's only one road into the clearing."

"Bobby, we have another problem too, Tera isn't affected by salt or holy water," Sam suddenly remembered.

"Is Alec?" Bobby asked.

"We don't actually know…but we don't think Alec's really into sticking with Tera…" Sam hesitantly answered.

"Still, that demon won't want to give Alec up easily…" Bobby's voice sounded distracted. Sam hoped he was coming up with a way to get the demon out of Alec before anything else happened to him.

"Alright, I might have a plan for all the other demons, but I don't have anything for Alec or Tera," Dean said slowly, interrupting the silence. "Bobby, how far away are you?"

"I'll be there before nightfall," Bobby answered.

"Good, we're gonna need all the help we can get," Dean muttered with a look at Sam.

* * *

_Hope y'all are ok with Bobby coming back, I thought they could use some help! And I hope y'all are liking this story!_

_More soon..._


	15. Chapter 15

Dean slowly made his way through the forest. His and Sam's footsteps could barely be heard, but he was still afraid that the demons would hear them coming. He crouched down once he reached the edge of the woods and Sam crouched next to him.

"I hate this plan Dean," Sam muttered for the thousandth time.

"I know," Dean answered with a roll of his eyes.

"Dean, there's no way we're going to get 30 demons to chase us through the forest, all the way to the devil's trap we have set up, trap them, and then exorcise them without getting caught," Sam said again.

"Dude I know, but this is the only plan we've got…" They'd already been through this, and if Sam had any other ideas he would be all for it.

Sam huffed in annoyance, but he didn't say anything else. In all honesty, Dean didn't like the plan either even though he was the one that came up with it. He had hoped that the others would all think it was crazy and talk him out of it or come up with something better. But that didn't happen, so here they were, about to carry out some crazy plan he'd come up with that would probably get them all killed.

Dean scanned the cabins to try and see if there was any movement from the demons. And he was looking for Alec; he wanted to make sure he was still ok. He still didn't have a plan on getting Alec back, but if this first plan worked then maybe everything would just fall into place. There was some hopeful thinking.

Dean's phone suddenly vibrated and he answered it as quickly as he could, "Yeah?"

"The trap's all ready, now we just need the demons," Harper's voice came through the phone.

"Alright, we'll try to get them there soon…" Dean slowly replied.

"Dean, this is gonna work," Harper instantly reassured.

Dean let out a small chuckle, "Either way, this'll be over pretty soon…"

"Be careful," Harper suddenly pleaded.

"Always am," Dean replied with a smile and then a little more seriously he said, "You be careful too."

"I will be," Harper promised and the she hung up.

Dean looked over at Sam and saw that he was waiting expectantly to hear what was going on. "Time for us to move…" Dean finally answered.

He got to his feet and Sam followed as they made their way to the cabins. The goal was to not get spotted until they found the cabin where Alec was and if they could, they would get him out before they put the real plan into action.

They were only going to be out in the open for a few seconds, but Dean stayed on high alert and just hoped that they weren't going to be seen. He ran as fast as he could and both of them had their backs against the outside wall only a few seconds later. They were at the first cabin and they still had one more cabin to go before they were even close to the cabin that Alec might be in.

Dean counted to three in his head; he wanted to make sure none of the demons had seen them before they went to the next cabin. Dean looked over at Sam to make sure he was ready and Sam nodded back to him. They took off again to the next cabin over and immediately stopped once they reached the back wall.

This time Dean could hear multiple sets of feet from inside the cabin moving to another part. They must have seen them from one of the windows and now they were coming for them.

Dean lightly hit Sam's arm and the two of them ran. A demon ran around the corner and Dean immediately tackled it to the ground. He rolled off and saw Sam take down another demon. Without missing a beat, Sam reached down and helped Dean to his feet.

"Well, this wasn't part of the plan…" Dean said with a look at Sam.

"No kidding Dean," Sam threw back as they ran for the cabin that Alec was hopefully in.

They burst through the door to the cabin and Dean threw himself against the door as soon as Sam was inside. The demons that had been chasing them ran into the door, but it held against Dean's weight.

"They're supposed to be dead!" Tera suddenly screeched through the quiet cabin.

Dean turned around but kept his back against the door so he could see what was going on and still keep the demons out. Tera and Alec were both in the cabin and there were two other demons that were ready to attack at a moment's notice. Sam stood by his side, but neither of them were quite sure what to do now.

Tera's face was livid and Dean was afraid that Alec was just a second away from dying, but he looked calm. He was just standing there with his arms loosely crossed and he just pursed his lips in thought.

"Hmmm, looks like they aren't as dead as we hoped…" Alec replied with a smirk.

"You idiot!" Tera screamed which was loud enough to shatter all the glass in the room including the windows. Sam and Dean both threw their hands up to protect their faces, but the demons in the room didn't even flinch.

Tera pulled both of her hands back with frustration and Sam and Dean went flying through the air. Alec stepped back a step as Dean flew past him and watched as he crashed into the wall. He blinked a few times to clear his head, but the room was still spinning when he looked around. He looked to Sam and saw that he was shaking his head too, but he otherwise seemed fine.

Tera shot a look at Alec who raised his hands up and took a small step back. "I'll deal with you in a minute."

She walked closer to Sam and then fisted her hands in his jacket and hauled him to his feet and slammed him against the wall. She loosened her grip as she trailed her fingers down his chest and he tried to back away even more but the wall kept him in place.

"It is nice to see you again Sam," Tera said quietly. "I hated the thought of you dead, but you know it was necessary…"

"Cause you know we're going to stop you?" Sam asked sarcastically.

"Well, you tried to stop me…it was a very short attempt but still…" Tera said with a smile.

She rose up to her tiptoes and tried to kiss Sam, but he turned his head so she only kissed his jaw. She pouted, "C'mon Sam, this is probably the last thing you'll ever get to do!"

Sam refused to answer, or even look at Tera, but she waited a minute before she turned away. "Fine. If that's what you want, then fine." She released him, but she used her demon mind tricks to keep him against the wall. She ran her hand across his chest one more time before she walked over to Dean.

She was not as nice to Dean; she forced him across the room again, but this time she followed and kicked him in the side. He rolled away from her and had to grab his side in pain, but she was there again and she kicked him in the same spot. He groaned in pain, but he couldn't do anything to stop her.

He barely heard Sam shout for Tera to stop, but the room was going in and out of focus and he was having trouble keeping everything straight.

Tera picked him up by the shirt collar and slammed him against the wall. The little breath that he had left went out as soon as his back hit the wall. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Sam struggling against Tera's hold, but he couldn't get free.

Dean grabbed Tera's wrist to try and pull her off, but her grip was too strong to remove. The best he could do was keep her hand low enough so she didn't choke him.

"I will enjoy killing you," Tera said with an evil grin.

He couldn't stop Tera's hand now; she had just made him think he was keeping her at bay when in reality she could do whatever she wanted. Her hand closed around his throat and squeezed. Even though he knew it was pointless, he tried to pull her hand off but it still wouldn't budge. He was starting to see spots and he knew it wouldn't be long before he lost the fight for good.

His vision was just starting to go black when Tera's hand released him. He dropped to his knees and sucked in as much air as he could. He couldn't stop the coughing and he had to curl in on himself to try and get the air through his abused windpipe.

Dean jumped when a gentle but frantic hand landed on his shoulder. He was almost too out of it to realize that it was Sam next to him and he couldn't figure out how Sam had gotten free of Tera.

"Dean!" Sam's concerned voice filtered through even though he felt like he was coughing enough to dislodge his lungs.

"I'm alright…" Dean tried to reassure, but his voice was rough and barely above a whisper.

Sam must have heard him though because he sounded less frantic now, "Dean, we need to get out of here…"

Dean just ignored him as he tried to piece together what happened. He couldn't figure out why Tera would just release them so he looked to Sam. Without even saying anything, Sam knew what Dean wanted to know and he answered before the question was even asked, "Alec threw something at Tera which made her mad and she dropped us to go after him…"

There was total chaos in the cabin once Dean was aware enough to focus on everything. Tera and Alec were hitting each other with everything they had, but that wasn't the only thing going on. Demons had come in through the windows and it looked like there were two sides that were fighting each other.

"What the hell?" Dean asked as he tried to get to his feet. He was too shaky to stay standing, but Sam was there to help support him.

"I don't know," Sam replied even though Dean hadn't expected him to have an answer.

Dean was just about to ask Sam if he thought they should leave when he saw a glimpse of a ponytail and then a second later he thought he saw a trucker hat in the crowd of demons. He looked to Sam and saw that he'd seen the same thing. Dean wanted to run into the mayhem and see if it really was Harper and Bobby that he saw, but Sam pulled on his jacket to keep him back.

Sam looked at him in exasperation and then looked back to the middle and yelled, "Bobby!"

Bobby and Harper both looked up; they both had shotguns in their hands that they were using to beat off the other demons to make their way through everyone. It wasn't long before they were both standing in front of Sam and Dean; they were out of breath and had some pretty nasty cut, but otherwise seemed fine.

"What are you guys doing here?" Sam asked.

"You two were takin' too long and we thought somethin' had happened," Bobby replied like it was obvious.

"Well you were right," Sam muttered.

"You two alright?" Bobby asked in concern after he looked them both over.

"We'll live," Dean grumbled and Bobby's focus instantly narrowed in on him. He knew his voice sounded terrible and he couldn't hide the pain right now.

Bobby looked around the room and then back at them all, "What are we waiting for? Let's do the exorcism!"

Dean looked up at Sam and he shrugged back so Dean answered, "We didn't really come up with what to do next…"

Before anyone could start the exorcism their little group became the focus of a handful of demons. There were six of them and they didn't have any way to really fight them.

"This was the worst plan ever…" Dean muttered as three demons started for him and Sam.

Sam pulled him back and any other time he would have glared at his overprotective little brother, but he was still unsteady and he wouldn't be much help against the demons.

A crash had everyone in the room looking; Alec was standing with his fists raised and a wide smile while Tera was in the corner. She actually looked scared and Dean almost wanted to cheer for Demon Alec.

Bobby took up the opportunity of everyone's distraction to start the exorcism. Dean watched as the demons writhed and screamed until there was a mass of black smoke leaving the room. All the people that the demons had possessed collapsed to the floor leaving the four of them and Alec.

Tera had disappeared during the exorcism without even leaving her meatsuit and Demon Alec was still standing where he had been when he'd beaten Tera.

Alec turned to them after scanning the room and then he deadpanned, "That was exciting…"

"That exorcism didn't work on you?" Sam asked in curiosity.

"Nope. It didn't work on Tera either, but she's long gone now," Alec answered with a bored tone.

Alec looked around at all the bodies on the floor; they were all unconscious, but Dean could see that some of them were still breathing.

"Was that all the demons? Why were they fighting each other?" Bobby asked after a moment.

Alec nodded slowly, "Some of them thought of me as their leader since I was in charge for a while, but the others thought Tera was still in charge…" Alec answered them, but it looked like he was thinking about something else.

"What are you going to do now?" Dean finally asked. He almost dreaded what the answer was going to be. They couldn't let him just get away with Alec, but they didn't have a way to stop him either.

Alec looked up at them all, "You know the only reason I beat Tera was because Alec helped me." Alec took a deep breath and then continued, "I am going to miss the meatsuit, but I said I would let him go and to be honest I kinda miss my hermit…"

Dean didn't really know what the demon meant by that, but he didn't care as long as it gave Alec back to them.

"I can't promise how long he'll live once I bail, but who knows…you are the Winchesters after all," Alec said with a smirk. Then the demon was smoking out and flying out of the window. Alec stood there for a moment with a look of confusion and then he collapsed.

* * *

_So sorry for the long delay, I had quite the work schedule this week...but hopefully y'all like this chapter and enjoyed this story._

_Ending coming soon!_


	16. Chapter 16

_I lied, this is not the end! Be warned there is sap in this chapter!_

* * *

"Alec!" Sam and Dean shouted as soon as they saw Alec go down.

They moved as fast as they could since Sam was helping Dean walk, but as soon as they were at Alec's side they were both kneeling next to him. Sam wasn't surprised at all when Harper and Bobby crouched down on the other side of him.

"He's not breathing!" Dean said and Sam could hear the panic in his voice even though he was trying to hide it.

"Hit his chest, hard!" Harper instantly replied.

Dean fisted his hand and then hit Alec's chest over his heart. Alec suddenly gasped and his eyes flew open and then a second later he was coughing and taking raspy breaths. Dean kept his hand on Alec's chest and Sam knew it was his own way to be reassured that Alec was alive.

"Take it slow Alec," Sam murmured with relief.

Alec curled in on himself and rolled to his side making Dean move his hand to Alec's shoulder. He had his eyes closed tight and his jaw was clenched and Sam knew he was in pain. He had no idea what kind of damage the demon had done to Alec or how badly he was hurt from fighting with Tera, but Alec wasn't talking which was never a good sign.

"Alec?" Dean asked softly after a few seconds. He put his hand on the back of Alec's neck, "Alec, c'mon, you gotta tell us what hurts."

Alec's breath hitched when he tried to reply, but it just came out as a whimper. Sam's heart clenched and he instinctively reached out and put his hand on Alec's shoulder to try and soothe him. Alec tried to say something again, but it was too soft for them to hear.

"Alec, I can't hear you kiddo," Dean said when it seemed like Alec wasn't going to say anything else.

Alec barely opened his eyes and Sam could see them fill with tears of pain. He was pleading for them to understand what he needed, but Sam still didn't know. Alec's lips barely moved and this time Sam could hardly hear him breathe, "Hospital…"

Sam met Dean's panicked eyes and then he asked, "Alec, did you say 'hospital'?" They had to be sure before they actually took him to a hospital. Alec was seriously injured though if that was really what he was asking for.

Alec closed his eyes in relief at them getting what he needed and nodded. Sam panicked when Alec closed his eyes and he gripped his shoulder tighter than he meant to. "Hey, stay with us Alec!" His eyes opened a crack and Sam almost smirked since it seemed that Alec would have rolled his eyes if he'd had the energy.

Sam kept his focus on Alec while Dean looked to Harper and Bobby. "Got any friends at any hospitals nearby?"

"I got one in Helena," Bobby reluctantly replied.

"Bobby that's almost two hours away!" Dean said and then he looked at Harper hopefully.

Harper shook her head, "Mine's in Spokane, Washington…"

"Dammit…" Dean muttered as he ran his hand through his hair.

Alec reached out a shaky hand and grabbed Dean's shirt. He didn't have the strength to force Dean to pay attention to him, but that move was enough for Dean to turn back to him.

"I can make it…" Alec forced out, but he coughed right after he said it. It was a deep, ripping cough that had Alec gripping Dean's shirt tighter. When the cough passed Alec looked up and Sam saw blood coating his lips and dribbling down his chin.

"Alright, Alec, look at me," Dean said to get Alec's attention again and Alec slowly raised his eyes to meet Dean's. "Sam and Bobby are going to stay with you while me and Harper go get the car ok?"

It took a minute for Alec to process what Dean said, but then he nodded that he understood. Dean looked at Sam and then finally stood up along with Harper and left the cabin.

Sam looked at Alec; he was lying on his side, curled protectively around his abdomen and Sam knew he needed to find a way to keep Alec awake. He didn't know what to say and he wished that Dean had stayed with Alec instead. Dean would know how to keep Alec awake, and maybe even smile a little, but Sam couldn't think of anything.

Dean had kept him awake when he was hurt on more than one occasion; all he had to do was think of something that Dean would do.

Dean would try to make him smile so that's what he was going to do. "We need to work on your deal making skills…" Sam started with a small smile.

Alec barely opened his eyes in curiosity so Sam continued with his smile growing, "You could have at least had the demon drop you off at the hospital before smoking out…"

He was rewarded with a pained smile and Alec whispered, "So picky…"

Sam chuckled, "Hey, I'm just sayin'." Alec's eyes started to drift shut and Sam gently squeezed his shoulder and pleaded, "Try to stay awake Alec."

Alec looked back at him and tried to glare, but it was not very intimidating compared to what Sam knew he could do.

"Alec, can you tell us what hurts," Bobby gently asked.

"Bobby?...didn't know you were here…" Alec mumbled and Bobby and Sam shared a look of concern.

"Yeah, I'm not goin' anywhere," Bobby said in his gruff voice.

"You been here the whole time?" Alec asked in confusion.

Before Bobby could say anything, Sam cut in, "Alec, try to focus, can you tell us what hurts?"

"Everything…" Alec admitted. He started coughing again and Bobby put his hand against his back to try and soothe him.

Dean came back inside before Sam could find out a better answer from Alec. He saw Dean limp a little, but he was trying to hide it. Dean must have noticed that Sam was looking at him because he barely shook his head to tell him not to bring it up.

Dean crouched down again next to Alec, "Hey kiddo, you feelin' any better?"

"Mmmm…maybe…" Alec slowly replied.

"That means no," Sam provided with a small smile.

Dean didn't answer and instead asked Alec, "You ready to go for a ride?"

Alec nodded and Dean immediately moved to pick him up, but Sam put out his hand to stop him. Dean was in worse shape than he was and Sam was ready to put up a fight on this one. Dean glared back at him and Sam shook his head no. Dean raised his eyebrows in disagreement, but Sam stayed firm until Dean finally gave in. He dropped his head down and stood up.

"You two finally done?" Bobby asked sarcastically.

"They doin' that silent arguing thing?" Alec asked quietly.

"Yeah, they're arguing about who's gonna carry you," Bobby said with a small smirk and Sam and Dean both shot him a death look.

"Who won?" Alec finally asked and Sam could hear light amusement in his voice. He was a little surprised that Alec didn't complain about being carried, but his injuries were probably even worse than he was letting on.

"I did," Sam replied. He moved around until he could gently lift Alec up. Alec took in a sharp, painful breath a being moved and turned his head against Sam's chest so he could try to hide the pain that was written across his face. Alec seemed so much smaller in his arms than he really was, and Sam pulled him in close to try and keep him safe and protected.

One of Alec's hands had clenched onto his jacket and now he was holding on for dear life while his other arm was wrapped protectively around his ribs. After a few steps, Alec's face reappeared from where he'd hidden and he looked up at Sam in embarrassment, but he didn't loosen his grip on Sam's jacket. His knuckles were white with the force of his grip and Sam figured this was how he was dealing with the pain for the moment.

Alec briefly shot a look over his shoulder at the ground and then said with his voice barely above a whisper, "You're taller than I thought…"

Sam chuckled, "You gonna start calling me Sasquatch, too?"

"You're more of a…Gigantor…" Alec said with a small smile.

Sam laughed, but they were getting closer to the car and he knew this was going to be even more painful for Alec. He might be joking now, but Sam knew he was just trying to cover up how injured he really was; he didn't want to worry anyone.

Dean opened the backdoor as they walked up and Sam gave Alec a quick warning before he settled him in the backseat. Alec groaned at the extra movement and immediately curled protectively around his ribs, but he kept his death grip on Sam's jacket. Sam quickly slid in next to Alec and Sam saw that he was barely holding on to consciousness.

"Hey, the worst part's over," Sam tried to reassure him.

Dean and Harper got in the front seat while Bobby got in on the other side of Alec. Dean shot a quick look back before he started the car and turned them toward the exit. Alec fell against Sam after only a few minutes, but Sam could still hear his ragged breathing.

"I think we need a vacation…" Alec said weakly after a while.

Sam could hear the smile in Dean's voice as he said, "Sure thing kiddo, where do you wanna go?"

"The ocean…" Alec replied.

"Alright, we'll go to the ocean," Dean promised.

It was quiet in the car until Bobby finally spoke up, "Alec, you still awake?"

"Yeah…" Alec barely replied.

"The hospital is probably going to give you blood…" Bobby started out, but Sam didn't know where he was going with this. He felt Alec tense and he saw Dean look to the review mirror, but he was still lost.

"I'll be alright," Alec finally mumbled.

"What does that mean?" Sam finally asked.

"I can't have ordinary blood…" Alec answered and Sam suddenly remembered part of the conversation in the car on their last trip to the hospital.

"What happens if you do have ordinary blood?" Sam asked.

Alec took a long time to answer this time until he said, "It's just…uncomfortable…"

Bobby huffed, "That's not what your file said…" Alec glared at him, but Bobby just kept talking, "I'm pretty sure you described it, 'like your blood was on fire'…"

Alec didn't say anything, so Sam knew that what Bobby said was true. Sam looked to Dean to see what his reaction was, but he kept his eyes straight ahead. Sam hoped that Dean was thinking of a way they could avoid that for Alec, but they didn't really have a lot of options here.

Sam wanted to question Alec further about the effects of the blood and if all transgenics had the same reaction, but he figured that now wasn't a good time. Alec was leaning onto him heavily now and Sam didn't know if he should let him sleep or not. He finally decided that as long as he was still breathing, then a little sleep couldn't hurt him. It was quiet except for Alec's ragged breathing and Sam just hoped they were getting close.

Dean suddenly hit a hidden pothole that jarred everyone in the car. Dean cursed; he hated hitting potholes and this time he was avoiding them even more now that Alec was injured. Sam completely missed Alec's sharp breath and he didn't immediately notice that anything had changed.

Alec reached up, but his hand patted the air for a second before he finally gripped Sam's jacket and tried to pull him forward. Sam caught on that something was wrong and looked down at Alec; his lips were slightly blue, he was still breathing but his breaths were more like wheezing than actual breathing.

"Dean how much further!?" Sam asked with as much calm as he could muster.

Dean looked back to see what was going on and then looked back to the road, "20 but I can make it 10."

Dean pushed the Impala even faster and Sam just prayed that no cops were around. But with the way things had been going for them lately, he wouldn't be surprised if they got pulled over. Alec was doing his best to breathe, but he still wasn't getting enough air. Sam didn't know what had happened to make Alec even worse off than before, but if he had to guess, he would say that something punctured one of his lungs.

Sam looked out the window and was relieved to see the blue hospital sign. Dean took the turn as fast as he could without losing control and they were at the front of the hospital in just a few seconds. Bobby jumped out as soon as the car was stopped so he could make sure his friend was still on board. He'd called while they were on the road and everything was supposed to be fine, but he still needed to tell the guy they were there

It wasn't long before a team of hospital people were at their car with a gurney. Sam was forced out of the way as they got Alec on the gurney and started a line of fluid in his arm. Bobby was off to the side talking to some guy in scrubs while they rolled Alec inside.

Dean suddenly jogged past Sam, but turned and tossed the keys to him and then kept going. He had no idea what Dean was doing so he called out, "What are you doing?"

Dean turned to look at him and said, "I've got an idea!" He turned back and ran over to Bobby and the doctor where they talked for a minute and then Dean and the doctor ran inside. His eyes were fixed on the hospital doors and he couldn't seem to look away.

"Sam?" Harper's voice made him jump; he forgot that he was still in the parking lot with the keys to the Impala in his hands and he wasn't alone. Harper was standing next to him, looking up at him in concern. He didn't actually know how long he'd been standing there, looking at the place where his brothers disappeared, but it was long enough for Harper to look worried and Bobby was now standing with them instead of by the door.

"How about we park the car and then go inside?" Bobby asked gently to try and get him back in motion. He'd been going nonstop and now he suddenly had nothing to do but wait.

Sam went through the motions to park the car and then he was in the waiting room, just pacing back and forth. Bobby and Harper were both sitting and they had tried to get him to sit down too, but he couldn't stop moving. Dean wasn't back yet and they hadn't heard anything about Alec. He'd tried sitting for a while, but he couldn't stop bouncing his leg so he decided to just get up and pace again.

All he could do to pass the time was pace. Now that he thought about it, he didn't actually know what time it was, or what time they'd even gotten there. He had no idea how long they had been there, but it felt like a few hours at least.

The nurse in charge of the waiting room was watching him wearily; she didn't have any information for them, but Sam couldn't help but ask every so often.

Finally, Alec's doctor walked through the doors and headed towards their small group. Sam stopped in his tracks when the guy walked in and he worried at his lip when he couldn't read the guy's expression. He was middle aged, but he was just average height and he was still wearing scrubs.

"I'm guessing you're Sam?" The doctor asked as he stopped in front of him.

Sam nodded so the doctor continued, "I'm Dr. Eric Martin; I was the one who worked on your brother, Alec." Sam didn't say anything, but he couldn't hide his impatience at knowing how Alec was and finding out where Dean was.

"He had some pretty major internal injuries, but he made it through surgery," Eric said.

"Can I see him? Where's Dean?" Sam couldn't keep his questions in any longer.

"He's not awake, but Dean's with him now if you want to come with me…" Eric answered.

Sam didn't even wait for Eric before he started for the door, but then he remembered Bobby and Harper and he stopped and looked back. Bobby motioned for him to go on and he didn't need anything else.

Eric led him down the halls. They must have been getting close because he slowed down and warned, "We have him on a ventilator and some pretty strong painkillers. He's not out of the woods yet, but I'm going to be keeping an eye on him and Dean already proved that he wasn't going to leave."

Sam nodded in understanding; he knew the drill from all their other trips to the hospital. Even with Eric's warning, Sam couldn't help but freeze in the doorway. His mouth was dry and his eyes started to fill when he looked at Alec, but he didn't actually see what was happening now; all he could see was Dean after the crash. Dean was dying and a reaper was after him and there was nothing Sam could do to fix it.

"Sam! C'mon man, snap out of it!" Dean's voice suddenly pulled him back into the present and he finally focused on his brother. Dean was standing in front of him with his hand on his arm; he was actually wearing scrubs and he had gauze on his cuts. He looked tired, but he was there and that was what mattered.

Dean pulled him to the chair and sat him down and muttered, "Dude, you're freakin' out the Doc…"

"Sorry…just reminded me of something…" Sam admitted. Dean knew he was talking about the crash so he didn't have to ask. Sam looked back at Alec and he was relieved that he didn't go back to the past. This was his little brother; he was hooked up to all kinds of machines with tubes in his arm and a tube jammed down his throat. A heart monitor was keeping track of heartbeat and Sam was glad to see that it was steady. He was so still and if the heart monitor hadn't been sounding, Sam would have thought that he was dead.

"So, what's going on?" Sam asked.

"Sam, don't you think the Doc should take a look at ya?" Dean asked instead of answering.

"I wanna know what happened first," Sam replied stubbornly.

Dean sighed, but he knew a losing battle so he didn't argue. He sat down on the other chair in the room and nodded for Eric to start talking.

Eric hesitated, "I'm not quite sure where you want me to begin…"

"Tell me everything," Sam immediately replied.

Eric took a deep breath, "Well, you already know most of it…we fixed up his internal injuries but we needed to give him blood, which is where Dean came in. Bobby and Dean both said that he couldn't have…um…ordinary blood, but Dean thought-I don't know if I can explain this right." Eric looked to Dean for help.

Dean instantly took up where Eric left off, "Since his blood is technically my blood, I thought maybe the side effects wouldn't be as severe…"

"Smart," Sam muttered. "What's next? Is he going to wake up soon?"

"I want to keep him on the ventilator until his lung heals. Medically speaking, he shouldn't have even made it this long…but, he seems to be full of surprises. If he makes it through the night, then he should be ok. We'll have to take it day by day then, but in my personal opinion, I think he's going to pull through; he's a fighter and he's got a good support system," Eric said with a small smile.

Sam let out a breath of relief. Alec wasn't out of the woods yet, but Sam just knew he was going to make it. He looked over at Dean and he saw the same determination on Dean's face. There was no way they were going to let Alec just up and leave them. No matter what it took, they weren't going to leave his side until he came back to them.

* * *

_I have no idea if the next chapter is the end or not...we'll see!_

_Hope you all like it because there will be More Soon!_


	17. Chapter 17

_"I don't even know where to start…" Eric muttered._

_Dean looked up and briefly met Eric's eyes; he was their only hope at saving Alec and he didn't know where to start. Alec was open on the operating table with Eric standing over him and a team of nurses and other hospital personnel. Dean wasn't really allowed in here, but this was the only way he'd allow them to operate on Alec. Their last trip to the hospital had been a complete disaster and he wasn't about to let that happen again._

_"Suction…" Eric said and one of the other people complied._

_Dean had been firm and demanded that Eric let him in the OR, but Eric had his own requirements. He hadn't been allowed in until Eric had cleaned him up and checked him over. He'd only been allowed to give a little bit of blood and he only hoped it was enough, but Eric wouldn't let him give any more._

_Eric had given him some scrubs and a scrub cap and then only after he promised he would just sit there no matter what, was he allowed in the OR. Alec was already out when he walked in and there was already a chair set up for him._

_"He's crashing!" Eric's voice brought him back to the present. Eric shot him a look to stay put and it went against every fiber of his being to let other people bring Alec back._

_"Clear!"_

_"Charge to 400…"_

_"Clear!"_

_Dean was just about to stand up when he heard the beep from the heart monitor signaling Alec was still alive._

_"He's back!" Eric said, he looked at Dean and nodded in reassurance._

_Dean let out a breath of relief. He leaned forward and whispered to Alec, "You don't get to leave, you hear me? You gotta hold on ok? Just hold on Alec…"_

* * *

Dean jumped awake when Eric walked into Alec's room. He was half on Alec's bed and half still sitting in a chair when the Doc walked in and he ran his hand down his face to try and wake up. He needed to know how Alec was doing and he couldn't be half asleep when the Doc gave him an update.

"I see Sam's finally getting some sleep," Eric said with a small smile. Alec's room had a recliner in the corner that Sam was currently passed out on and a little sofa that Harper and Bobby were sitting on asleep. It'd taken a lot of convincing to get Sam to agree to leave Alec's room long enough to get checked out, but once he was cleared it was a battle against sleep and he hadn't lasted very long.

Dean just nodded in reply while Eric checked Alec over. He was listening to his breathing and Dean crossed his fingers that the ventilator was going to come out soon. He was relieved that Alec was alive, but it would be even better if he could have Alec reassure him that he was ok. And to talk to him and for him to move on his own; it was just too weird having a silent, motionless Alec and he hated it.

Eric stood up with a smile and looked back at Dean, "I can't believe it, but I think I'll be able to take him off the ventilator soon. His lung is healing faster than I thought and he should be able to breathe on his own before long."

"Really?" Dean asked hopefully.

Eric nodded, "It's amazing…from everything you told me, there's no reason he should be alive…" Eric looked at Alec's monitor and then back at Dean, "There's no guarantee that he'll wake up right away, but it's a start."

"Thanks Doc," Dean said sincerely.

Eric smiled a little, "It's been my pleasure." Eric looked him over after a moment and then asked, "How're the ribs treating you?"

Dean shrugged, "I've had worse."

"It'd probably be better if you weren't sitting like that…" Eric lightly suggested, referring to how he'd found Dean when he'd first walked in.

"I already told you, I'm not going anywhere," Dean replied with a smile.

Eric chuckled, "I think everyone on this floor knows that."

Dean shrugged again, "What can I say? We're a close family."

Eric nodded in understanding and then started for the door. Just before he left he turned and said, "I'll be back in a little while. You should try and get some sleep."

Dean just nodded and then went back to half lying on Alec's bed and drifted back to sleep.

* * *

Alec was groggy, but he wasn't in pain and that was surprising. He couldn't really remember what had happened, but he did remember being in pain. He slowly realized that he was lying on a bed, but it took him longer than it should have to figure out he was in a hospital.

Something was tickling his nose and he slowly reached up his hand to remove it. A strong hand stopped his motion just as he was about to rip out the nasal canal.

"Alec, leave it," Dean lowly commanded. Dean gently put Alec's hand back on the bed and Alec immediately reached for the tubes in his arm. Dean grabbed his hand again and threatened, "Alec, don't make me tie your hands to this bed…"

Alec finally relaxed in defeat and looked at Dean. He looked tired and Alec figured that he hadn't moved since they got here, which he actually didn't know how long they'd been there. He felt a little trapped and immediately looked away from Dean to find the exit; he needed to know where his escape routes were if things started to go wrong.

There was only one door out, but there were a few windows that they could go through if they absolutely had to. He was surprised to see Bobby and Harper napping on a little sofa, but then he panicked when he didn't see Sam.

He could distantly hear the heart monitor speed up and Dean was next to him almost instantly.

"Hey, hey, it's ok," Dean quickly reassured. "Sam's on the other side of the room."

Alec's eyes quickly left Dean and moved to where Sam should be. He visibly relaxed when he spotted him with his legs hanging over the arm of the chair and his mouth slightly open in sleep. His eyes snapped back to the door when he heard a set of footsteps approaching.

He was deadly still as a doctor walked into the room. He didn't trust doctors, especially when he was hurt and couldn't put up a good fight against them. Dean must have realized that he was about a second away from fight or flight because his hand landed on his chest to keep him calm. He still refused to look away from the doctor and the guy had the good sense to take a step back.

Dean moved his hand from his chest to the side of his face. Alec still refused to look away so Dean looked away and shot over his shoulder, "Doc, give us a minute!" He didn't wait to see if the doctor did anything, but Alec kept his eyes on the doctor even after he backed out of the room and walked down the hallway.

"Alec, look at me!" Dean's voice was a little frantic now and he had both hands cupping his face. Alec was forced to meet Dean's eyes and as soon as he did he felt his energy slip away. "Hey, it's ok, that was just the doctor," Dean said his tone softer now. "You're in the hospital, you had surgery, and everyone's fine. How're ya feelin'?"

Alec's head was spinning with all the information. He'd figured out he was in the hospital, but was surprised to hear he'd had surgery. It took him a second to process everything Dean said until he finally figured out that Dean had asked him a question. "I'm alright…" He answered automatically, but his voice betrayed him since it was rough with disuse.

Dean's eyebrow rose in disbelief, but he sat back down and moved his hands away from his face. He kept one hand on Alec's arm though and he couldn't hide that he felt relief with the contact. Dean just let them sit in silence for a minute and Alec felt himself start to slip away. He blinked slowly and looked up at Dean with tired, pleading eyes.

"You can go back to sleep. I'm not goin' anywhere," Dean promised quietly.

Alec tried to stay awake for a few more seconds, but lost the battle and slipped into unconsciousness.

* * *

There was a lot more noise the next time Alec resurfaced. Sound was always the first thing that came back, but there were so many voices he couldn't tell what was being said. He could hear Sam's voice, but he sounded like he was whispering, which seemed strange. He could hear Bobby and Harper also whispering, but Sam was talking to someone he didn't recognize and he was curious enough to open his eyes a crack.

He saw that Sam was standing at the end of his bed, but he was blocking whoever he was talking to. Alec was just about to say something, but something distracted him. There was something heavy holding his arm down. He was just about to pull his arm free when he looked down and saw that Dean was the one holding down his arm. He was fast asleep with his head resting on Alec's arm. Alec didn't dare move; Dean was sleeping in the most uncomfortable way imaginable just because he was worried about him.

He looked at Dean and actually took the time to look at him. He had dark circles under his eyes and Alec knew that was his fault. It was weird seeing the same freckles on Dean's face that he had on his own; he'd forgotten how identical they were and he felt silly thinking that. But it was true; although they looked alike they were still two different people.

It took him a minute to realize that the talking had stopped. He looked up and found that Sam and the doctor from before were both looking at him.

As soon as he looked up, Sam moved to his side and said with a smile, "Hey, it's good to see ya."

Alec smirked a little, "Haven't you been here the whole time?" His voice was still rough, but it sounded a little better than before.

Sam rolled his eyes, "Yeah, but someone decided to take a really long nap…"

"I was sleepy…still am…," Alec admitted and that reply made him wonder how many drugs he was on. He looked over to the IV pole and scowled, but he couldn't really tell what all they were pumping into him.

Sam noticed him looking and said, "They have you on more drugs than what's normal since your metabolism is so fast…I guess you almost woke up during surgery which kinda clued them in…"

Alec just remembered that the doctor was in the room and he immediately tensed. Sam put a comforting hand on his shoulder, "Alec, this is Dr. Eric…umm…" Sam looked over at the doctor with embarrassment.

"Martin," Eric supplied with a smile. "But you can call me Eric, or as your brother likes to call me, Doc."

Alec still didn't quite trust the guy, but he did have a sense of humor so that was a move in the right direction.

Eric stepped forward slowly, but Alec kept his eyes trained on him. He must have sensed that Alec was still capable of being dangerous, even injured as he was, since he raised his hands up in the classic 'unarmed' gesture and asked, "Is it ok if I check you over?"

Alec could tell Sam was holding his breath waiting for him to react. He still didn't take his eyes off of the doctor, but Sam and Dean seemed to trust this guy…

He barely nodded to the doctor and he could feel Sam relax just a little. The doctor gave him a timid smile before he walked forward. He was still hesitant and Alec figured he was giving him another chance to change his mind. When Alec didn't make any move to stop him, Eric moved his hospital gown and revealed bandages underneath.

He shouldn't have been surprised to see the bandages, but it still brought back memories of Manticore, just being in the hospital brought on memories of Manticore. More than one mission had gone wrong and he'd been to the infirmary more times than he could count. He couldn't help his heartbeat increasing or his breathing coming in shorter gasps. He was panicking; all he could see were doctors with their faces covered, scalpels, blood, bandages, bright lights, the list went on and on. It was too much of the same and he was hurt and he was being drugged up and he couldn't stop this. He was back at Manticore even though he was supposed to be free and they were going to do tests and cut him open.

There was a roaring in his ears and his vision was narrowing. He was better than this; he needed to get himself back together, but he was already hyperventilating. His drug induced brain couldn't get rid of the feeling that this was Manticore. It felt like Manticore and that was enough.

Sam was suddenly the only thing in his line of sight. He had both hands on his shoulders and he was saying something that Alec couldn't hear. His eyes were frantic as he looked for a way out of there. He tried to move, but Sam was too strong for him.

"…breathe…in…out…c'mon Alec, focus!" Sam said and then he looked over his shoulder and commanded, "Do not sedate him!" Sam turned back to him and gently said again, "C'mon, in and out…you can do this…"

Alec drew in a slow, shaky breath and then let it out.

"Good! Alright, do it again," Sam said with encouragement. Alec took in another slow breath and found that his vision was starting to clear.

Sam let out a breath of relief once he started breathing more normally again. Once he was able to focus again, he immediately reached for the IV in his arm. Sam didn't see him reaching for it, but Dean must have woken up when he started panicking and stopped him.

"Too many drugs…" Alec mumbled with his eyes closed.

"Doc, how badly does he need the IV?" Dean asked.

"He needs the fluids, but I can lower the amount of painkillers," Eric said slowly.

"No painkillers," Alec mumbled again. They were just making him groggy and making him live through things he'd tried so hard to forget.

"Alec you're still recovering," Sam stated quietly.

"I don't want them," Alec stubbornly replied, but his words were slightly slurred.

He saw Sam and Dean exchange a look and then Dean was nodding to the doctor.

Alec was disappointed to find that he was already exhausted again. He felt stupid and embarrassed about his panic, especially since it had taken all of his energy. He felt like he'd been asleep forever, but he just couldn't keep up.

"How long has it been?" Alec suddenly asked since he didn't know what day it was or even if it was morning or night. Maybe if he knew he would feel better…

Alec looked back and forth between Sam and Dean, but Sam was looking at Dean to answer and it looked like Dean was mentally counting how long they'd been there.

"Dean-" Sam started slowly, but Dean quickly cut him off.

"I'm thinking…" Dean looked down as he started thinking out loud, "We got here around three in the morning…you got out of surgery around seven…ventilator out around ten…you woke up the first time around eleven…and now it's almost three again…" Dean looked up again and said, "About 12 hours."

"12?" Alec asked in surprise while he pushed himself up to his elbows; that was a long time for a transgenic to be down.

"And you aren't leaving for a while," Sam immediately put in, guessing where Alec was going to go next.

Alec slumped back onto his pillow, tiring even from just trying to sit up for a second. His body was betraying him and it made him mad. He felt ridiculous for even thinking that and he blamed the drugs again. "No more drugs…" Alec said, trying to sound firm in his demand but he didn't think he managed it.

"Alright tough guy," Dean said with a smile. "Now go back to sleep.

Alec didn't need to be told twice. His eyelids were already heavy and he was out almost instantly.

* * *

It had been three days since they got to the hospital. Alec was sitting up and Sam knew he was ready to leave. He'd probably been ready ever since he first woke up, but Sam and Dean both insisted that he stay. When that didn't work, Dean went with the less nice way. He'd told Alec that if he could walk out of the room without their help, then they would leave.

Alec had shot them a cocky smile before he'd forced himself out of bed. He swayed when he first stood, but he put up a hand to stop Sam and Dean from helping. He was able to take four slow steps before he stumbled and lost his balance. Dean had gotten to him first and caught him before he even had a chance of hitting the ground. He'd pouted for a while after that, but he didn't bring up leaving again.

Sam sat down and handed Alec the little glass of water with a straw in it. Alec had taken out the IV just a little while after the panic attack and the nasal canal followed shortly after. Dean had still tried to stop him, but Alec wasn't budging this time.

"I got my ass chewed by both your Dads," Bobby said with a smile, looking between Harper and Dean and bringing Sam back to the conversation. All of them were sitting around Alec's bed and they had plenty of stories to tell.

"I don't know why I got in trouble," Dean muttered.

"You let a seven year old and an eleven year old, who had never held a gun before, play with a gun! Your Dad put you in charge to make sure stuff like that didn't happen!" Bobby exclaimed.

"Oh c'mon Bobby! I knew what I was doing and we were bored! We were just gonna do some target practice," Dean argued.

"They could have both shot you! Or each other! You're just lucky we got back when we did," Bobby said, trying to hide his smile.

"I'm not an idiot! I made sure the safety was on before I gave them the gun," Dean said with a smile in Alec's direction when he let out a light chuckle.

Sam could remember that entire thing very clearly. They'd been at Bobby's for a week and Dean had been left in charge when John and Harper's Dad had needed Bobby's help. Dean had already been bored and he wanted to do some target practice to impress Harper. Sam had tagged along and asked Dean if he could hold the gun. Dean had been reluctant, but he never could say no to the puppy dog eyes. Dean had gotten his ass chewed way more than Bobby had, but he'd used the same defense then that he did now; he'd turned the safety on before he'd given the gun to Sam.

Sam looked at Alec while Bobby jumped into another story. Sam was worried about him even though he seemed to be healing. He listened to their stories and laughed, but he didn't ask them any questions and he didn't tell any of his own stories. If they asked him something he would answer, but he wasn't acting like himself.

Sam had gotten used to the millions of questions and the constant chatter from Alec. He could out talk Dean easily and the silence was just unnerving.

Alec was still pale and he had dark circles under his eyes even though he was miles better than he had been. He'd been sitting up for a while and Sam was starting to think it was time for him to take another nap.

"Sam, would ya stop looking at me like I'm about to keel over," Alec said with a smirk, but it wasn't the smirk that Sam was used to.

"I don't think you're gonna keel over," Sam muttered back, which just made Alec smile a little more.

It was quiet for a minute and Sam noticed that Alec was actually fidgeting. Alec was normally constant movement, but he didn't fidget. It was just one more thing that was worrying Sam.

They all looked up in surprise when Eric walked in the room. Alec was still weary of the doctor, but he hadn't had another panic attack since they'd stopped giving him painkillers.

"Hey Doc," Dean greeted easily. He didn't have a problem with Eric thanks to the guy letting him sit in the OR with Alec. It was funny since Dean didn't get along with very many doctors.

"So, you gonna let us leave soon?" Alec asked after a minute.

Eric had been very cautious around Alec, but he'd also been very open. He told Alec exactly what he was doing and why and if Alec asked him a question he was completely honest. He slowly walked forward, but he looked to Alec for permission before he did anything else. Alec reluctantly nodded and Eric put his stethoscope against Alec's chest and listened.

"Deep breath," Eric said after a moment and Alec complied. Eric checked the stiches from the surgery and he lightly pressed against Alec's ribs before he finally stood up again. It seemed like everyone was holding their breath, waiting for the doctor's answer. "Your breathing sounds good. You're ribs are still broken," He said this with a stern look and then he continued, "but as long as you take it easy, I think you could sleep here or in an actual bed and it would be about the same since you aren't getting anything for the pain…"

"So…you're saying we can leave?" Alec asked slightly hopeful.

"You have to take it easy," Eric said, trying his best to sound forceful. "But yes, I think you all are clear to go when you want."

Alec looked to Sam first with a small smile starting on his face, but he knew the one he really had to ask was Dean. He moved his gaze to Dean and sat very still while he tried to figure out what Dean's decision was going to be.

Dean kept up his poker face for just a minute before he broke out into a grin. Alec's smile widened and Sam was relieved to see that it was closer to his real smile, but it still wasn't quite right. He let it go for now and instead moved to help Alec get ready for travel. They were all going to be glad to leave the hospital, but Sam was just happy that Alec was going to be alright.

* * *

_Ok, for real the next chapter will be the end! _


	18. Chapter 18

"Alec, just use the wheelchair," Sam said with a sigh.

"No. I don't need it," Alec growled out defiantly as he stepped into his jeans. He swayed just a little and Sam's hand instantly steadied him. He couldn't quite bring himself to shrug off Sam's help since he knew he was being difficult about the whole wheelchair thing. He sat back down once his jeans were on and waited a second so he could catch his breath.

Alec looked to the door to make sure Dean hadn't seen what was going on. If Dean thought he needed more time in the hospital then they'd never leave. Right now Dean was just squaring things away with the doctor before they left. Bobby and Harper were both waiting outside of the room for them which just left him and Sam, who had refused to leave him.

They all thought he was trying to go too fast, that he was trying to do too much too soon. But he needed to move and get out of there as soon as he could. He should be healing faster than this anyway, he was a transgenic and if he'd been at Manticore he would have already been back in training. The only reason he could think of that was slowing down his recovery was Dean's blood.

Manticore had experimented on all of its creations just to see what would happen. Sometimes nothing would happen, but almost all of them had a bad reaction to ordinary blood. There were just too many weird things in their DNA to accept it. Some transgenics had died when they'd been tested, but the others had just wished they were dead. Luckily, Dean's blood was close enough to his own that he wasn't out of his mind with pain, but he did think it was slowing down his recovery.

Sam held out his t-shirt and it snapped Alec back to the present. He had to shake his head no to Sam; putting on the shirt would require too much movement and he wasn't too proud to admit that.

"You know, I don't think anyone would notice if I just walked out of here without a shirt…" Alec tried with a small smile.

Sam rolled his eyes, "Alec, I think people would notice. Besides, blue's not really a good color on you," Sam said with a pointed look at the bruises still covering his skin.

Alec snorted and looked at Sam with disbelief that slowly turned into a smile, "Whatever, you know even half dead I look great."

Sam chuckled but then frowned in thought and started digging through the duffle again. He turned back to Alec after a moment holding a flannel shirt with a question on his face. Alec nodded and took the shirt from Sam.

He shrugged into the shirt and then buttoned the middle buttons to cover the bandages. He looked down at his shoes and braced himself to move. It was going to hurt like Hell to put the shoes on, but he wasn't going to stop now. He looked up in surprise when Sam reached out and grabbed his shoes. He didn't even say anything as he held out the shoe for him to put his foot in. Alec was embarrassed that Sam was putting his shoes on, but he was relieved too. He didn't notice that Sam had finished until he looked up to see Sam looking at him in concern.

"What?" Alec asked slowly in confusion.

"You sure you're alright?" Sam asked quietly.

Alec couldn't help his automatic answer, "I'm always alright…"

Sam frowned and looked away, but he didn't say anything as he slowly stood up. Alec feared he could see through his answer so he lightly hit Sam on the chest and said, "C'mon, help me up."

Sam tried to keep the surprise off his face, but he couldn't stop the small smile that appeared. He helped him to his feet, but he let him go and let him stand on his own once he was steady. Alec wasn't expecting Sam to let him go, but he couldn't blame him. He'd nearly killed both Sam and Dean and he didn't know why they were even still near him, let alone worried about him. He was still waiting for them to leave him, but if they didn't then he would just wait until he was at full strength again and go.

"Alec, please, the wheelchair will help," Sam pleaded, misinterpreting his hesitation.

Alec shot Sam a cocky smile, "Sam, I'm fine. This is probably the most downtime I've had after an injury…" Sam still didn't look convinced so Alec dropped his act for just a second to let Sam see how badly he just wanted out of here. Sam's mouth dropped open in surprise at suddenly seeing exactly what Alec was feeling, but he just nodded once in understanding. "Just don't go far…" Alec suddenly said with a small smile. "Not really in the mood for a face to face with the floor…"

That got Sam to chuckle and he gently grabbed Alec's arm and started to lead him out of the room, "C'mon, let's get out of here."

* * *

Dean parked off the road on the side of the beach. Against his better judgement, he'd checked Alec out of the hospital and they headed for the coast. They had to go back to the cabin to get Bobby's car and the drive had been a lot more comfortable once it was just him, Sam, and Alec in the car. Harper had decided to ride with Bobby so Alec could lay in the backseat.

Bobby and Harper pulled up next to them and parked. Dean had been surprised when they had both put their foot down and said they were going with them to the beach. But then again, they could all use a vacation and it'd been forever since any of them had been to the ocean.

Sam started to turn to wake Alec up, but Dean put a hand on his arm to stop him. "I'll get him up…You can go ahead."

Sam's eyebrows drew together and he looked back at Alec to make sure he was actually asleep. Dean looked back too, but he knew what he would see. Alec had been asleep for most of the trip after he'd gotten the backseat to himself again. Alec was lying on his back, his knees were bent up since he was too tall to lie across the entire backseat and his arms were crossed over his chest. The Doc had made them take a pillow and a blanket with them and Dean had been surprised when Alec had actually used them.

"Dean…" Sam looked back at him, but he hesitated for just a moment. "I think something's wrong…he's not really acting like himself…"

"Sam-" Dean tried to start but Sam cut him off.

"He's acting like he's fine, but he won't tell me what's wrong. There's something off, I just don't know how to fix it."

"Sam-" Dean tried again, but Sam wasn't done yet.

"His smile's off. It's not his real smile," Sam said adamantly.

"I know Sam," Dean replied quietly and Sam's mouth dropped open in surprise and Dean chuckled. "Don't look so surprised. He's a lot like me ya know." Sam's mouth turned up in a small smile but Dean sobered after a second. "I'm gonna talk to him, see what's going on."

Sam looked him over and Dean couldn't quite explain what the look on his face was. If he had to guess, he'd say his little brother looked proud of him. Before he could say anything though, Sam opened the door and pushed himself out of the car.

Dean reached back, like he'd already done a hundred times on this trip, and touched Alec's shoulder. He'd been doing that randomly while he drove just to make sure that Alec was ok. He couldn't shake the feeling that Alec was just going to check out on them, so he'd reach back to just reassure himself.

"Alright kiddo, time to wake up," Dean said as he withdrew his hand from the back. He didn't know if Alec would wake up still sleepy or if he'd wake up swinging, it was just best to be careful.

Alec didn't immediately wake up so Dean spoke a little louder, "Alec. Wake up. Time to go to the beach."

Alec's face went from peacefully smooth to scowling in a matter of seconds. He opened his eyes slowly, but then sat up so suddenly that Dean's eyes widened in surprise. Alec scrambled back until his back was against the door, but then he wrapped his arms around his middle and leaned forward so he could rest his forehead on his knees.

Dean reached back again now that he knew he wouldn't get his arm ripped off and lightly messed up Alec's hair so he knew he wasn't alone and then rested his arm against the back of the front seat.

"Where are we?" Alec muttered with his voice tinged with sleep and with pain.

"We're close to Eureka, California…we're at the ocean," Dean replied with a small smile.

Alec turned his head enough so he could look at Dean. "Really? We're at the ocean?" His voice held some hope in it and Dean was sad to realize that the kid had never been to the ocean before. It wasn't just him making a joke about vacations, but he really did want to see this.

Dean nodded and Alec started to move to get out. Dean quickly opened his door and went around so he could help Alec if he needed it. Alec actually accepted his help and Dean led him to the front of the car. He sat on the hood of the car and Dean sat next to him. What little color Alec had gained from sleeping had left and he was looking a little unsteady even just sitting.

Dean looked Alec over, but Alec wasn't paying any attention. He was staring out in the distance, just looking at the ocean with wonder.

"Wow," Alec whispered with a smile and Dean was glad to see it was his real smile.

They sat in silence for a while, just looking at the water and watching the waves crash into the shore. It was peaceful to just sit and watch. They didn't have anything to worry about, they just got to sit there and be brothers for once.

Dean was the first one to break the silence. He cleared his throat and asked, "You alright?"

"I'm always alright," Alec said with a forced smirk in place.

"Don't give me that crap," Dean said and he couldn't keep all of the anger out of his voice. Alec was keeping something from both him and Sam and he wasn't going to have it.

Alec sighed and then gave him some of the truth, "My side still hurts, I'm tired, and I get dizzy when I stand up too fast, but I really am alright."

It was Dean's turn to sigh; Alec was keeping something from him and he was going to work it out of him. "Alec…Sam and I both know something's going on with you."

Alec looked away and refused to look back at him. Dean lightly bumped into Alec's shoulder and said, "C'mon, talk to me. What's going on?"

Alec looked back at him and for just a second Dean saw Alec's mask slip. He saw the pain he was in but he also saw that he was scared. Alec locked his emotions away again, but it was enough for Dean to figure out what could be going on.

"Alec, it's not your fault," Dean said softly. Alec looked back at him with surprise. "It's not your fault that the demon possessed you and what you did was incredible. Most people can't fight off possession for as long as you did."

"I tried to kill you and Sam," Alec finally said in a small voice.

Dean put his arm around Alec's shoulders, "But you didn't. You fought him off and risked your own life doing it."

Alec still refused to look at him, but he didn't shrug off Dean's arm. Dean suddenly thought of something and got up to go to the trunk. He could feel Alec's eyes following as he reached the trunk, grabbed something, and walked back.

"This whole thing could have been avoided if I hadn't been a complete idiot," Dean said as he held up a small pendant on a string and held it out for Alec. He slowly grabbed it and pulled it over his head, but he held it between his fingers to examine it.

"What is it?" Alec asked curiously.

"It'll keep the demons out," Dean said simply. "Me and Sam both have tattoos and you can get one too if you want…I should have thought something like this could happen sooner. I'm sorry Alec."

Alec was quiet and his head was down until he asked, "Have you ever been possessed?"

Dean took a deep breath and then said, "No, I haven't been possessed, but Sam has."

"He has?"

"Yeah, it wasn't that long ago either. The demon tried to kill off as many hunters it could find. He shot me and then went after Bobby, but it wasn't his fault." Dean wasn't going to stop this conversation until he convinced Alec that this wasn't his fault.

Alec didn't say anything and Dean's worry was spiking. If he didn't convince Alec that this wasn't his fault then he was going to take off. They wouldn't be able to stop him either. Most of the time Alec was extremely laid back; he liked watching TV and he acted like nothing fazed him. They'd seen him in action though, and it was almost scary how good he was at the job. Dean knew that they'd only seen a portion of what Alec could do, but if he wanted to disappear, he would. They wouldn't even know he'd left and there would be no way to find him.

Dean couldn't take the silence any longer, "Alec, I don't want you to go." Alec started to protest, but Dean cut him off, "Shit happens. It's not your fault and Sam and I are fine. If you sneak out and leave, I can't stop you, but I won't stop looking for you, you got it?"

Alec's eyes widened in surprise and Dean waited until he finally nodded in understanding. "Are you sure?"

Dean ruffled Alec's hair again, "Of course I am! All families have their issues, ours are just a little bit stranger…But we don't take off at the first sign of trouble and we don't freak out at a little demon possession."

Alec finally broke into a small smile, "Yeah, alright…"

"Good," Dean lightly bumped against Alec, "Now can we roll credits on this chick flick?"

Alec actually laughed and it made Dean smile to finally hear it. Dean stood up and turned to look at Alec. "Yeah, I think we're good on the chick flick," Alec replied with a smile.

Dean nodded his head toward the others and Alec nodded his ok. Dean grabbed the blanket and pillow from the back and when he turned back, Alec was starting to move. He was slow getting up, but Dean paced him as they made their way to where Sam, Harper, and Bobby had set up a little area.

"How's the cripple doin'?" Bobby asked with smile at their arrival.

"That's rich comin' from you old man. What, you forget your walker in the car?" Alec shot back as he carefully lowered himself to the ground and sat in the sand. He sat in between Sam and Bobby, which Dean thought was good since he probably wouldn't stay awake for very long.

"Kid, if you hadn't been on death's door two days ago…" Bobby shook his head and let the threat hang in the air.

"I'm not scared of you," Alec challenged with a smirk.

Bobby laughed, "Oh, I know that!"

"Don't worry Bobby, it's nearly impossible to scare him to do anything," Sam said with a smile.

"And even if you do threaten him with something you'll probably end up with pink socks," Dean threw in.

"Hey, you never asked if I knew how to do the laundry," Alec defended, but his voice was starting to sound sleepy, his words starting to slur together.

Dean sat down in between Sam and Harper and handed Sam the pillow and blanket. He saw Alec's eyes slip closed and then he forced them back open.

"I thought you knew how to do everything?" Bobby teased.

Alec smiled and leaned against Sam, his eyes slipping closed again, "I never said I didn't know how…I just said you never asked…"

Dean shook his head in amusement and he looked over at Harper with a smile on his face. She scooted closer to him so he could put his arm around her and she could lean against him. He kissed the top of her head and then rested his cheek near her temple.

This was exactly where he wanted to be. He was with his family and they were all safe and he was going to make sure they stayed that way.

* * *

_The End!_

_Hope y'all liked the story cause I really enjoyed writing it! Thank you all so much for the reviews/follows/favorites they really mean a lot to me!_

_Max might make an appearance in the next story...that is, if you guys want another one ;)_


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